Judges should reassert constitutional authority

Re “Hiding behind secrecy,” Opinion, June 14

Louis Fisher’s argument is disconcertingly obvious, and yet it does not go far enough. Executive branch claims of concealing information to protect national security cannot be trusted and may be undermining national security or even concealing criminal acts. If these considerations do not become working judicial assumptions in national security cases, then the logical result of Fisher’s view will be merely to reaffirm an existing jurisprudential regime in which judges simply “look at the documents” and rubber stamp them. Judges must reassert their constitutional authority and cease deferring to the executive branch’s claim that the judiciary is incompetent to decide what could harm national security.

CHRIS RONK

New York