U.S. Won't Have To Name Names

The Supreme Court refused Monday to consider whether the government properly withheld names and other details about hundreds of foreigners detained in the months after the Sept. 11 terror attacks.

The high court turned down a request to review the secrecy surrounding detainees, nearly all Arabs or Muslims, who were picked up in the United States immediately following the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

CBS News legal consultant Andrew Cohen said the Court's move was not a ruling on the merits of the case, but by refusing to hear the appeal the justices will keep in place a lower court ruling upholding the government's policy.

Many if not most of the more than 700 detainees at issue in the case have since been deported. Some picked up after Sept. 11 were charged with crimes, and others were held as material witnesses. Only Zacarias Moussaoui, who was detained before the Sept. 11 attacks, is being prosecuted in connection with the Sept. 11 attacks.

A Washington study center critical of the Bush administration responses after Sept. 11 sued to learn names and other basic information about the detainees. The appeal raises constitutional questions under the First Amendment right to freedom of speech and freedom of the press, and legal questions under the federal Freedom of Information Act.

The government had argued that the names should be kept private in order to ensure the integrity of ongoing investigations, Cohen reports.

In June, in a 2-1 ruling, a panel from the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia affirmed that the information can properly be withheld from the public under an existing exemption from the Freedom of Information Act. That provision exempts information from disclosure if it is compiled for law enforcement purposes and if revealing it "could reasonably be expected to interfere with enforcement proceedings."

Twenty-three news organizations and media groups, including The Associated Press, joined in asking the high court to hear the case.

"It is the responsibility of courts, and especially this court, to provide meaningful judicial review when the government invokes national security to justify unprecedented secrecy in exercising its awesome power to arrest and detain hundreds of people," lawyers for the Center for National Security Studies argued in a court filing.

"History shows that, in times of crisis and fear, executive officials are prone to overreact, especially in their treatment of minorities in their midst," the appeal said.

The government grabbed people on thin suspicion, then moved to deport detainees who had no demonstrated link to terrorism but who had violated civil immigration laws, lawyers for the Center for National Security Studies told the court.

The government sealed immigration records and omitted detainees' names from jail rosters, among other tactics, to make sure that details of hundreds of arrests remained secret, the lawyers said.

Last year, an oversight report by Justice Department investigators found the FBI took too long to determine whether the hundreds of foreigners held after the Sept. 11 attacks were involved with terrorism, as dozens endured "lock-down" conditions 23 hours each day and slept under bright lights.

The inspector general's report found "significant problems" in the detentions.

Last month, the Supreme Court upheld a Justice Department policy closing immigration hearings to the public.

The high court's decision not to review the case represents a victory for the Bush administration. Last week, the high court disappointed the administration by taking on a higher-profile terrorism case involving the rights of an American citizen captured on the battlefield in Afghanistan.

The Bush administration had argued strongly that it has authority to hold the man, Yaser Esam Hamdi, indefinitely and without charges in a military prison.

The Supreme Court has also agreed to hear a case on the legality of the Bush administration's detaining more than 600 terrorism suspects without charge at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.