Holder Signals Greater Openness with OLC, State Secrets

AG Eric Holder--confirmed 75 to 21 last night and sworn in today--wrote that he would review "significant pending cases" in which the government asserted a state secrets privilege and that he would seek to minimize the use of that privilege, reports the Federation of American Scientists.  (Many thanks to Con Law Prof blogger Ruthann Robson for the tip.)  Holder also said he would review OLC policies on releasing its opinions and that he favored "making its opinions available to the maximum extent consistent with sound practice and competing concerns."  I most recently posted on the secret OLC memos, and ProPublica's catalog of them, here.

SDS