''American Civil Liberties Union v. Department of Defense'', No. 1:04-cv-04151, 389 F. Supp. 2d 547 (S.D.N.Y. 2005) (''ACLU v. DoD''), is a case in United States Federal Court, wherein the

American Civil Liberties Union The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is a nonprofit organization founded in 1920 "to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to every person in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States". T ...

sued the

Department of Defense Department of Defence or Department of Defense may refer to: Current departments of defence * Department of Defence (Australia) * Department of National Defence (Canada) * Department of Defence (Ireland) * Department of National Defense (Philipp ...

and the

Central Intelligence Agency The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gathering, processing, ...

under the

Freedom of Information Act Freedom of Information Act may refer to the following legislations in different jurisdictions which mandate the national government to disclose certain data to the general public upon request: * Freedom of Information Act 1982, the Australian act * ...

for the release of still-

secret Secrecy is the practice of hiding information from certain individuals or groups who do not have the "need to know", perhaps while sharing it with other individuals. That which is kept hidden is known as the secret. Secrecy is often controvers ...

materials —specifically those related to abuse at Abu Ghraib prison in

Baghdad Baghdad (; ar, بَغْدَاد , ) is the capital of Iraq and the second-largest city in the Arab world after Cairo. It is located on the Tigris near the ruins of the ancient city of Babylon and the Sassanid Persian capital of Ctesiphon ...

Iraq Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq ...

, during the U.S. military

Occupation of Iraq Occupation of Iraq or Iraq occupation may refer to: * Occupation of Iraq (2003–2011) (occupation by American, British and Italian forces) * Mandatory Iraq (Iraq under British Administration, 1921–1932) * Northern Iraq offensive (June 2014) ...

. The case was brought in 2004. According to already public reports, the abuse began in mid-2003 and was ended in late 2003. Public news reports of the abuse first appeared in April 2004. Since 2003, the government has released more than 100,000 pages. These documents show both that hundreds of prisoners were tortured in the custody of the CIA and Department of Defense, and that the torture policies were devised and developed at the highest levels of the Bush administration. In late September, 2005, Federal Judge

Alvin Hellerstein Alvin Kenneth Hellerstein (born December 28, 1933) is a Senior United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, and has presided over several high-profile cases. Education and career Heller ...

, though affirming the

Glomar response In United States law, the term Glomar response, also known as Glomarization or Glomar denial, refers to a response to a request for information that will "neither confirm nor deny" (NCND) the existence of the information sought. For example, in res ...

("can neither confirm nor deny") for some documents, found that the ACLU case for FOIA disclosure was stronger, and that the Glomar application to certain documents was not valid.

Notes

External links

* {{caselaw source , case = ''American Civil Liberties Union v. Department of Defense'', 389 F. Supp. 2d 547 (S.D.N.Y. 2005) , courtlistener =https://www.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.nysd.249459/gov.uscourts.nysd.249459.150.0.pdf , leagle =https://www.leagle.com/decision/2005936389fsupp2d5471882 * https://www.aclu.org/cases/aclu-v-department-defense 2005 in United States case law United States District Court for the Southern District of New York cases American Civil Liberties Union litigation