A unanimous Supreme Court on Friday dealt a setback to three Muslim Americans who are trying to sue the FBI for religious discrimination over surveillance in their place of worship after 9/11.
The narrow opinion, written by Justice Samuel Alito, reverses an appeals court ruling that would have allowed the suit to move forward over objections by the government that doing so would risk disclosure of secret and classified information.
The court said the government's longstanding "state secrets" privilege is paramount and that a procedure established by Congress in the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act to allow trial courts to review the legality of some electronic surveillance does not apply in this case.
Source: Supreme Court sides with FBI in suit brought by Muslim Americans on spying