DC Court: State Secrets Privilege Trumps Any Citizens' Right To Know Whether Or Not Their Own Gov't Is Trying To Kill Them

The government can try to kill you without due process as long as it can successfully invoke state secret privileges. That's the jist of the decision [PDF] just released by Judge Rosemary M. Collyer of the DC District Court. Journalist Bilal Abdul Kareem believes he has been placed on the US government's "kill list." Kareem, due to the nature of his reporting, spends a fair amount of time talking to militants involved with terrorist groups like Al-Qaeda. After a series of Syrian airstrikes that narrowly missed him, Kareem concluded the government must have decided he was a terrorist worth killing, even though he was only reporting on terrorist activity in Syria. His case was allowed to proceed in 2018 by Judge Collyer (a former FISA judge), but now she is ending it. The state secret privilege invoked by the government is just too high to surmount, even for an American journalist who has expressed legitimate concern his own government is trying to kill him. At least Collyer has the honesty to deliver the crushing blow right up front. What constitutional right is more essential than the right to due process before the government may take a life? While the answer may be none, federal courts possess limited authority to resolve questions presented in a lawsuit, even when they are alleged to involve constitutional rights. This is such a case. Despite the serious nature of Plaintiff’s allegations, this Court must dismiss the action pursuant to the government’s invocation of the state secrets privilege.