Court Opinion

ID: 9438317
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-03 05:28:52.83143+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:25:32.640003
License: Public Domain

BEA, Circuit Judge,
concurring:
I concur with Judge Fisher’s well-reasoned opinion and join fully in his result. I also concur with Judge Fisher’s analysis with respect to United States v. Reynolds, 345 U.S. 1, 73 S.Ct. 528, 97 L.Ed. 727 (1953). I write separately only because I would decide this case under Totten v. United States, 92 U.S. 105, 107, 23 L.Ed. 605 (1876).
The Totten bar requires our courts to dismiss cases “where the very subject matter of the action” is “a matter of state secret.” Reynolds, 345 U.S. at 11 n. 26, 73 S.Ct. 528. In this case, every claim in the Plaintiffs’ complaint is based on the allegation that officials of the United States government arrested and detained Plaintiffs and subjected them to specific interrogation techniques. Those alleged facts, not merely Jeppesen’s role in such activities, are a matter of state secret.