Political Quotes

“Mr. President, the Classified Information Procedures Act, CIPA, was enacted in 1980 with bipartisan support to address the ``disclose or dismiss'' dilemma that arose in espionage prosecutions when a defendant would threaten the government with the disclosure of classified information if the government did not drop the prosecution. Previously, there were no Congressionally-mandated procedures that required district courts to make discovery and admissibility rulings regarding classified information in advance. CIPA has worked reasonably well during the last 30 years, but some issues have arisen in a number of notable terrorism, espionage, and narcotics cases that demonstrate that reforms and improvements could be made to ensure that classified sources, methods and information can be protected, and to ensure that a defendant's due process and fair trial rights are not violated. In 2009, when the Congress enacted the Military Commissions Act, MCA, the Congress drew heavily from the manner in which the federal courts interpreted CIPA when it updated the procedures governing the use of classified information in military commission prosecutions. At that time, however, the Congress did not update CIPA. Indeed, since its enactment in 1980, there have been no changes to the key provisions of CIPA.…”