During the week of Feb. 9, the Obama administration invoked the state secrets privilege in a sensitive legal case. The decision has led some groups to question if President Barack Obama is breaking from the Bush administration's interrogation and intelligence policies as promised, or if he intends to continue existing practices. Meanwhile, both houses of Congress are considering legislation (H.R. 984 and S. 417) to narrow the interpretation of the largely undefined privilege created by case law.

Mohamed et al. v. Jeppesen Dataplan, Inc. was a case dismissed by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit on Feb. 9. The case was originally filed in May 2007 when the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) sued a Boeing subsidiary, Jeppesen Dataplan, for providing logistical support to the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) when the agency forcibly disappeared five of the ACLU's clients for interrogation abroad (known as extraordinary rendition). In