The US government properly withheld names and other details about hundreds of foreigners who were detained in the months after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, a federal appeals court ruled, deferring to administration warnings about continued threats from terrorists.
In a 2-1 ruling on Tuesday that represented a victory for President George W. Bush and Attorney General John Ashcroft, a panel from the US Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia determined that disclosing information could give terrorists dangerous insight into the government's Sept. 11 investigation.
Federal judges who are asked to compel such disclosures should defer to White House concerns that they might help the nation's enemies, the appeals panel said.
"America faces an enemy just as real as its former Cold War foes, with capabilities beyond the capacity of the judiciary to explore," wrote US Circuit Judge David Sentelle. He said judges are "in an extremely poor position to second-guess the executive's judgment in this area of national security."
Ashcroft called the ruling "a victory for the Justice Department's careful measures to safeguard sensitive information about our terrorism investigations."
In a harsh dissenting opinion, Circuit Judge David Tatel accused his colleagues of "uncritical deference to the government's vague, poorly explained arguments for withholding broad categories of information about the detainees."
Tatel said the decision to withhold the information prevents US citizens from learning whether the Bush administration "is violating the constitutional rights of the hundreds of persons whom it has detained in connection with its terrorism investigation."
Sentelle and Circuit Judge Karen LeCraft Henderson ruled that the list of names could "constitute a comprehensive diagram of the law enforcement investigation."
The decision was the latest in a string of legal victories in US courts for the administration. The government has so far largely withstood challenges to its broad use of a powerful surveillance law, its closing of immigration hearings and its use of enemy combatant laws to prosecute US citizens accused of ties to terrorists.
The latest courtroom battle focused on information about at least 762 foreigners who were inside the US illegally and were detained following the Sept. 11 terror attacks. More than 500 have been deported so far.
A recent audit by the inspector general at the Justice Department found "significant problems" with the detentions, including allegations of physical abuse. Civil liberties groups have noted that only one of those detained, Zacarias Moussaoui, has been charged with any terrorism-related crime.
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