The Intercept published a must-read story yesterday revealing the secret and incredibly vague rules the US government uses to place people on its terrorism watchlist. While the story covers many civil liberties problems associated with the unaccountable process, it also highlights an important topic that has gotten lost in recent debates about government secrecy: the continued abuse of the state secrets privilege.

The state secrets privilege is a controversial legal doctrine that has been used by the Bush and Obama administrations to get several lawsuits dismissed alleging serious unconstitutional actions—like torture, illegal surveillance, and due process violations—merely by arguing the issues were too sensitive to discuss in court without harming national security. Obama once promised to reform the state secrets privilege, but his administration has instead doubled down on its use in several controversial cases. Just this year, Eric Holder was accused of abusing the privilege in a No Fly List case where the government knew the plaintiff had been placed on the list by mistake for seven years, but still invoked the privilege—despite swearing in an affidavit that the administration would not use the privilege in cases of “administrative error.”

Yesterday, the Intercept quoted from Attorney General Eric Holder’s sworn affidavit to a judge in another case challenging the No Fly List where the plaintiff specifically asked for the Watchlisting Guidelines that were leaked yesterday: