WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court ruled Thursday the government may invoke the "state secrets" privilege to block former U.S. contractors from testifying about the now well-known waterboarding and torture of prisoners held at CIA sites in Poland.
By a 6-3 vote, the justices said the U.S. government can claim a privilege of secrecy even if it is not a secret.
"We agree with the government that sometimes information that has entered the public domain may nonetheless fall within the scope of the state secrets privilege," Justice Stephen G. Breyer said for the court in U.S. v. Abu Zubaydah.
