Judge Orders Obama to Release Classified Document
In a rare demonstration of judicial independence from the national security state, a federal judge last Wednesday ordered the federal government to release a document it says is classified. The case is a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) suit filed by the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL) in 2001 against the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR). CIEL requested USTR turn over a one-page position paper concerning a U.S. negotiating position in negotiations to create a free-trade area among 34 nations in the western hemisphere that eventually went nowhere. USTR refused to release the document, which was classified because the countries in the negotiation had agreed to keep their records secret until the end of 2013. To violate that agreement would, according to USTR, undermine trust of the U.S. and thus could reasonably be expected to cause harm to U.S. foreign relations.
But U.S. District Court Judge Richard W. Roberts, a Bill Clinton appointee, rejected the USTR’s argument, especially since the document was a U.S. Government record, not foreign government information that had been provided to the U.S. in confidence. Roberts concluded that “USTR has not provided a plausible or logical explanation for why disclosure of the document would harm the United States’ foreign relations.” The Obama administration is likely to appeal this ruling.
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