US high court to hear ‘state secrets’ case on Muslim surveillance

Supreme Court agrees to second ‘state secrets’ case on whether lawsuit claiming FBI spied on US Muslims can go forward.

The United States Supreme Court has agreed to decide whether a lawsuit can go forward in which a group of Muslim residents of California allege the FBI targeted them for surveillance because of their religion. It is the second case the court has accepted for the fall involving a government claim of “state secrets”, the idea that the government can block the release of information it claims would harm national security if disclosed. This legal precedent stems from the 1953 case US v Reynolds that saw the Supreme Court uphold state secret privilege after the widows of three men who died in an aeroplane crash sought accident reports to sue the US government. The government asserted releasing the reports would endanger national security.