The Supreme Court decided today to uphold the governments policy of secret arrests after 9/11.
According to the NY TImes Web Page:
The Supreme Court turned down an appeal today challenging the secrecy with which the Bush administration surrounded the arrest and detention of hundreds of people, nearly all Muslim men, in the weeks following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
A complete list of the names "would give terrorist organizations a composite picture of the government investigation," a panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit said in a 2-to-1 ruling last June. "The judiciary owes some measure of deference to the executive in cases implicating national security," the majority said.
The dissenting judge, David S. Tatel, said the majority had "converted deference into acquiescence" by accepting a categorical secrecy policy without requiring the government to show why the names of those who had been cleared of terrorist connections could not be made public. Of the nearly 1,000 people arrested, the government did eventually release the names of 129 against whom it brought criminal charges."