State secrets ruling

Marc Ambinder comments on today's state secrets court ruling:

A bottom-line read of the decision: the government can assert the privilege for any piece of evidence in any case. It just can't assert the privilege as an immunity doctrine -- or a justiciability doctrine -- as a way to end the case before it begins.

The case involved five men who underwent "extraordinary rendition" and subsequent torture; they allege that there flights were handled by a subsidiary of Boeing. The Bush administration had argued that state secrets were involved, invalidating the lawsuit. Today's ruling doesn't eliminate the ability of the government to declare something "secret," but it does say that the government can't throw a case out of court simply by making that claim.