Brief in Opposition
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No. 20-828 IN THE Supreme Courtd of the United States FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION, ET AL., Petitioners, —v.— YASSIR FAZAGA, ET AL., Respondents. ON PETITION FOR A WRIT OF CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT BRIEF IN OPPOSITION Dan Stormer Ahilan Arulanantham Shaleen Shanbhag Counsel of Record HADSELL STORMER RENICK UCLA SCHOOL OF LAW & DAI LLP 385 Charles Young Drive East 128 North Fair Oaks Avenue Los Angeles, CA 90095 Pasadena, CA 91103 (310) 825-1029 [email protected] Amr Shabaik Dina Chehata Peter Bibring CAIR-LOS ANGELES Mohammad Tajsar 2180 W. Crescent Avenue, ACLU FOUNDATION OF Suite F SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA Anaheim, CA 92801 1313 West Eighth Street Los Angeles, CA 90017 QUESTION PRESENTED This case challenges a domestic FBI surveillance program that, according to the FBI’s own informant, targeted individuals for electronic surveillance because of their religion. The Government asserted the state secrets privilege and sought dismissal of Respondents’ free exercise and religious discrimination claims on that basis. The court of appeals held that, with respect to electronic surveillance collected as part of the investigation, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act provides for ex parte and in camera review of the lawfulness of the surveillance, and that procedure displaces, at least at the threshold, the rule permitting dismissal of a claim based on state secrets. The question presented is: Whether the state secrets evidentiary privilege recognized in Reynolds v. United States authorizes the dismissal of claims challenging the lawfulness of electronic surveillance, particularly where Section 1806(f) of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), 50 U.S.C. 1801 et seq., requires a district court to assess the lawfulness of electronic surveillance by considering sensitive evidence in camera and ex parte. i TABLE OF CONTENTS QUESTION PRESENTED .......................................... i TABLE OF AUTHORITIES ...................................... iv INTRODUCTION ....................................................... 1 STATEMENT OF THE CASE .................................... 3 A. Factual Background .......................................... 3 B. Statutory Framework ....................................... 6 C. Procedural History ............................................ 9 REASONS FOR DENYING THE PETITION ......... 16 I. CERTIORARI IS PREMATURE ...................... 16 II. THERE IS NO CONFLICT WITH THIS COURT’S PRECEDENT OR ANY OTHER DECISION ........................................................ 19 III. THE DECISION BELOW WILL NOT LEAD TO PUBLIC DISCLOSURE OF SECRET INFORMATION ............................................... 21 IV. THE DECISION BELOW IS CORRECT ......... 25 A. FISA Establishes Mandatory Procedures for Courts to Utilize When Litigation Involves Secret Information Relating to Electronic Surveillance ............................. 25 B. Section 1806(f) Displaces the Dismissal Remedy of the State Secrets Privilege. .... 30 C. The Individual Capacity Respondents’ Seventh Amendment and Due Process Concerns are Premature and Lack Merit. ......................................................... 32 CONCLUSION .......................................................... 34 ii APPENDIX................................................................ 1a Joint Status Report (Aug. 31, 2020) ................... 1a iii TABLE OF AUTHORITIES CASES Al-Haramain Islamic Found., Inc. v. Bush, 507 F.3d 1190 (9th Cir. 2007) ............................... 23 Ellsberg v. Mitchell, 709 F.2d 51 (D.C. Cir. 1983) ................................. 24 Emp’t Div. v. Smith, 494 U.S. 872 (1990) ............................................... 18 Fidelity & Deposit Co. of Maryland v. United States, 187 U.S. 315 (1902) ............................................... 33 Galloway v. United States, 319 U.S. 372 (1943) ............................................... 33 General Dynamics Corp. v. United States, 563 U.S. 478 (2011) ............................. 19, 20, 31, 32 Halpern v. United States, 258 F.2d 36 (2d Cir. 1958) ..................................... 23 In re NSA Telecomms. Records Litig., 564 F. Supp. 2d 1109 (N.D. Cal. 2008) ................. 20 In re Terrorist Bombings of U.S. Embassies in E. Africa, 552 F.3d 93 (2d Cir. 2008) ........................ 23 Jabara v. Webster, 691 F.2d 272 (6th Cir. 1982) ................................. 23 Jewel v. Nat'l Sec. Agency, No. 19-16066 (9th Cir.) (filed Oct. 7, 2019) ................................. 21 Jewel v. Nat'l Sec. Agency, No. C 08–04373 (N.D. Cal. April 25, 2019) .......... 17 Jewel v. Nat'l Sec. Agency, 965 F. Supp. 2d 1090 (N.D. Cal. 2013) ................. 20 iv Mohamed v. Jeppesen, 614 F.3d 1070 (9th Cir. 2010 .......................... 10, 33 Parhat v. Gates, 532 F.3d 834 (D.C. Cir. 2008) ............................... 23 Tenet v. Doe, 544 U.S. 1 (2005) ................................................... 20 Totten v. United States, 92 U.S. 105 (1875) ..................................... 11, 20, 31 U.S. v. Daoud, 755 F.3d 479 (7th Cir. 2014) ................................. 19 United States v. Abu-Jihaad, 630 F.3d 102 (2d Cir. 2010) ............................. 22, 33 United States v. Amawi, 531 F. Supp. 2d 832 (N.D. Ohio 2008) .................. 22 United States v. Aziz, 228 F. Supp. 3d 363 (M.D. Pa. 2017 ..................... 22 United States v. Damrah, 412 F.3d 618 (6th Cir. 2005) ................................. 33 United States v. Lee, 2000 U.S. App. LEXIS 3082 (10th Cir. Feb. 29, 2000) ...................................................................... 23 United States v. Reynolds, 345 U.S. 1 (1953) ............................................ passim United States v. Squillacote, 221 F.3d 542 (4th Cir. 2000) ................................. 22 United States v. Texas, 507 U.S. 529 (1993) ............................................... 30 Usery v. Turner Elkhorn Mining Co., 428 U.S. 1 (1976) ................................................... 19 v Wikimedia Found. v. Nat’l Sec. Agency/Cent. Sec. Serv., 427 F. Supp. 3d 582 (D. Md. 2019) ............. 17 Wikimedia Foundation v. Nat'l Sec. Agency, No. 20-1191 (4th Cir. Feb. 21, 2020)..................... 21 STATUTES 18 U.S.C. App. 3 § 1 et seq. ....................................... 22 50 U.S.C. 1801 et seq. ........................................ passim 50 U.S.C. 1804 .......................................................... 30 50 U.S.C. 1806 ............................................................ 8 50 U.S.C. 1806(c)................................................ passim 50 U.S.C. 1806(d) ...................................................... 25 50 U.S.C. 1806(e) ...................................................... 25 50 U.S.C. 1806(f) ................................................ passim 50 U.S.C. 1806(g) ............................................ 8, 22, 28 50 U.S.C. 1806(h) ...................................................... 19 50 U.S.C. 1809(a) ........................................................ 9 50 U.S.C. 1810 ...................................................... 9, 29 50 U.S.C. 1810(a)–(c) .................................................. 9 50 U.S.C. 1825(h) ...................................................... 22 50 U.S.C. 1881(a)–(c) ................................................ 30 RULES Fed. R. Evid. 501 ....................................................... 20 vi OTHER AUTHORITIES Fed. Bureau of Investigation, Domestic Investigations and Operations Guide (2008) .................................. 6 H.R. Rep. No. 95-1720 (1978) ................................... 28 Merriam-Webster.com (2021), https://www.merriam- webster.com/dictionary/ ........................................ 27 S. SELECT COMMITTEE TO STUDY GOVERNMENTAL OPERATIONS WITH RESPECT TO INTELLIGENCE ACTIVITIES, BOOK II: INTELLIGENCE ACTIVITIES AND THE RIGHTS OF AMERICANS, S. REP. NO. 94-755 (1976) ....................................................................... 7 The Convert, THIS AMERICAN LIFE (Aug. 10, 2012), available at https://www.thisamericanlife.org/471/ the-convert ............................................................... 4 vii INTRODUCTION The Government’s petition is premature. It asks this Court to decide whether Congress displaced the state secrets privilege by authorizing in camera ex parte review of sensitive evidence when it enacted FISA. But this case is still at the motion to dismiss stage. The district court may never have to apply FISA’s ex parte in camera review procedures because, in the district court, the Government has now advanced a threshold objection: that Respondents have not shown they are “aggrieved parties,” and therefore cannot invoke these procedures. The Government has won that argument in similar litigation, and if it prevails on it here, there will be no occasion to apply the ex parte in camera procedures Congress established in this case. Furthermore, the court of appeals held only that, as a threshold matter, FISA’s ex parte in camera judicial review procedures displace the dismissal remedy that sometimes accompanies the state secrets evidentiary privilege. It made clear that its holding did not authorize disclosure to Respondents or the public, but instead only ex parte in camera review by the trial court. If the district court were to order any disclosure of the assertedly secret information, the decision below permits the Government to invoke the state secrets privilege anew. The state secrets issue may