Page 6 - State Secrets Privilege News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

>> first part sounded like a self-description by the senator. gop senators say they want to see kagan's memos from her time as domestic policy adviser to clinton. let's turn to msnbc political analyst lawrence o'donnell who supports the kagan nomination. lawrence, good evening. >> good to be here. >> let's bring in thomas jefferson school law professor marjorie cohen who opposed the nomination. good evening to you. >> good evening, keith. >> the kind of executive power expanded under the bush administration, some continued under the obama administration. how does solicitor general kagan fare o...

Interest groups can get their names considered but not picked but maybe they have veto power. >> number one it depends on the interest group. i think their power is relatively weak. there's only one guy that counts and that's the president. number three, i think the reason you're hearing that about elena kagan, her issues simply are not known. a lot of the more liberal interest groups don't like the position the obama administration is taking in some of the terrorism issues they've inherited from the bush administration, a relative little tough line on the state secrets privilege, detainee rig...

Obama administration really wants to fight that battle. they've argued this more narrowly on the state secrets privilege, and they've never tried to defend the bush administration on the actual nsa program. >> they also did something interesting here, which also gives context to this, it may be a little bit different. the holder justice department broke with the alberto gonzales justice department and gave the judge this classified description of why the case should be dismissed, and the judge still ruled in favor of the plaintiff. does that tell us just how flawed, at least for historical pur...

By declaring it criminal -- that the program was a crime, that you could not make a further -- you know, demand a further criminal investigation of what the bush administration did. and it's unclear whether the obama administration really wants to fight that battle. they've argued this more narrowly on the state secrets privilege, and they've never tried to defend the bush administration on the actual nsa program. >> they also did something interesting here, which also gives context to this, it may be a little bit different. the holder justice department broke with the alberto gonzales justice...

Nothing about this lawsuit can be heard and litigated at all because it involves state secrets, national security, therefore the lawsuit should be tossed out on those grounds alone. in this case, judge vonn walker the judge in san francisco rejected the bush and obama administration claims of state secrets and found the program illegal. now it's up to eric holder and the justice department to decide whether to appeal that ruling. >> michael, what has the president said on record regarding this? >> he hasn't spoken directly to this case but president obama did express his concerns about the use...