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The United States judiciary will defer to the executive branch on matters of foreign policy and national security when evaluating the need for secrecy.  The state secrets doctrine, a common-law evidentiary privilege, permits the government to bar the disclosure of information that poses a reasonable danger of exposing military matters that should not be divulged in the interest of national security.  In Mohamed v. Jeppesen Dataplan, Inc., the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit considered the government’s motions to intervene in and dismiss—on state secrets grounds—an action brought by foreign nationals against a company that purportedly assisted in the Central Intelligence Agency’s (CIA) “extraordinary rendition” program.  On rehearing en banc, the court of appeals affirmed the district court’s judgment and held that the plaintiffs’ action must be dismissed at the pleadings stage, in the interest of national security. . .