(1)
Just in case we didn’t get the message the first time, Obama has graciously consented to do it again. I think we can look forward to many more slow-motion replays in the weeks ahead.

For the second time this week, the Obama administration has gone to court in San Francisco to argue for secrecy in defending a terrorism policy crafted under George W. Bush – in this case, wiretapping that President Obama denounced as a candidate.

In papers filed Wednesday night, the new Justice Department asked a federal judge to suspend action on a suit challenging the wiretapping program, arguing that proceedings would jeopardize national security. Government lawyers also said the administration, not the courts, controls access to classified material at the heart of the case.

In combative tones, the lawyers told Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker that they would ask a federal appeals court to put the case on hold unless he acts by 3 p.m. today.

The dispute involves Walker’s Jan. 5 order to allow plaintiffs who say the government illegally wiretapped their phones to read a classified surveillance document that could confirm the assertion and avoid dismissal of their suit. Lawyers for the Obama administration say the judge’s decision “presents a clear-cut conflict between the court and the executive branch.”
[...]
The government inadvertently sent the classified document to Al-Haramain in 2005. It reportedly showed that the now-defunct Islamic charity had been wiretapped before the government designated it a terrorist organization.

Al-Haramain returned the document at the request of the government, which then argued in court that without the document, the group could not prove it had been wiretapped.

Numerous groups brought similar cases after Bush acknowledged that he had ordered the National Security Agency in late 2001 to intercept phone calls and e-mails between U.S. citizens and suspected foreign terrorists without congressional or court approval. But only Al-Haramain’s case survives.

Obama attacked the surveillance program as a presidential candidate, promising “no more illegal wiretapping of American citizens” in an August 2007 speech. His future attorney general, Eric Holder, said in June 2008 that Bush had defied federal law by authorizing the program.

The new Justice Department filing, which elaborated on arguments by the same lawyers under the Bush administration, addressed only the need to freeze the lawsuit and keep information secret and did not discuss the legality of the surveillance program. But if the department’s position is upheld, Al-Haramain’s suit will be dismissed.

Department spokesman Charles Miller confirmed that the brief represented the views of the new administration and its attorney general.
[...]
Eisenberg, Al-Haramain’s lawyer, said the filing was “disappointing to a great many people who have had much hope for change.”

I think Eisenberg probably got that right.

(2)
Judge Vaughn Walker is one of the good guys. I’ve got ten bucks which says that if he acts by 3 p.m. today, it will be to deny the government’s “suspend action” request.

(3)
It is with deeply painful irony that I recall all the celebration in liberal blogs about Obama’s Justice Department appointees. Not only was there widespread acclaim, but there was practically unanimous consent that Obama had assembled a crew that was deeply committed to firmly repudiating all the multifarious abuses of Bushworld.

Imagine how those who joined the Justice Department in the last few weeks in starry-eyed idealism must be feeling right around now.

Is it totally outside the bounds of possibility that one or two of the celebrated appointees will soon find themselves unable to continue to discharge their duties?

*** Update, 4:29 p.m. ***

It’s now four and a half hours past the 3 p.m. deadline that combative Justice Department lawyers gave Judge Walker for bowing before the might of the executive branch. No news of any kind on Google. So either nothing happened — the judge didn’t kowtow and the Justice Department wasn’t able to get a federal appeals court to put the case on hold — or everyone is keeping very quiet about what happened.

Given the Obama administration’s track record on such matters, I wouldn’t bet on the former over the latter.

*** Update #2, February 14, 8:13 a.m. ***

Judge Walker didn’t back down; the Justice Department has, for now:

A federal judge tersely denied the Obama administration’s request Friday to suspend a challenge to former President George W. Bush’s wiretapping program while the administration asks an appellate court to dismiss the case.
[...]
In Friday’s order, the judge responded bluntly to written arguments submitted Wednesday night by President Obama’s Justice Department, asking him to put the case on hold while it sought review of his ruling in the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The department said the procedures Walker had ordered, in which the judge would privately inspect the classified document and then show it to Al-Haramain’s lawyers, would endanger national security.

“The court is fully aware of its obligations with regard to classified information,” Walker said. He ordered the government to tell him by Feb. 27 how it intends to comply with his directive on security clearances.

With the case on hold for the next two weeks, the Justice Department backed away from its previous promise to ask the appeals court for an immediate stay.