United States v. Zubaydah

Decided March 3, 2022. Stephen Gerald Breyer delivered the opinion of the Court.

Docket 20-827 · 595 U.S. 195 (2022) · Cited 15 times

Holding

The Ninth Circuit’s judgment that the District Court erred in dismissing Zubaydah’s discovery request on the basis of the state secrets privilege is reversed, and the case is remanded with instructions to dismiss Zubaydah’s current discovery application.

The Court’s statement of the holding, from the opinion’s syllabus. The syllabus is prepared by the Reporter of Decisions and is not part of the opinion of the Court. Read the official opinion for authority.

How the Justices voted

Decided 7–2.

“Concurring” means agreeing with the outcome; any split shown is the Court’s judgment, not each Justice’s reasoning. The lineup is the syllabus’s disposition of who wrote and joined each opinion. Source: the opinion’s syllabus (supremecourt.gov).

Precedents cited

Supreme Court decisions this opinion relies on, ordered by how often it cites each. Cases in our collection link through; others are named.

• United States v. Reynolds · 345 U.S. 1 (1953)
• Department of the Navy v. Egan · 484 U.S. 518 (1988)
• Totten v. United States · 92 U.S. 105 (1876)
• Colorado River Water Conservation District v. United States · 424 U.S. 800 (1976)
• United States v. Nixon · 418 U.S. 683 (1974)
• Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. v. Sawyer · 343 U.S. 579 (1952)
• Watts v. Indiana · 338 U.S. 49 (1949)
• Korematsu v. United States · 323 U.S. 214 (1945)
• Central Intelligence Agency v. Sims · 471 U.S. 159 (1985)
• Schmerber v. California · 384 U.S. 757 (1966)
• United States Department of Justice v. Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press · 489 U.S. 749 (1989)
• Fisher v. United States · 425 U.S. 391 (1976)
• Immigration & Naturalization Service v. Chadha · 462 U.S. 919 (1983)
• Hamdi v. Rumsfeld · 542 U.S. 507 (2004)
• United States v. Detroit Timber & Lumber Co. · 200 U.S. 321 (1906)
• Chicago & Southern Air Lines, Inc. v. Waterman Steamship Corp. · 333 U.S. 103 (1948)
• United States v. Zolin · 491 U.S. 554 (1989)
• Tenet v. Doe · 544 U.S. 1 (2005)
• Zivotofsky v. Kerry · 576 U.S. 1 (2015)

Cited by

Later Supreme Court opinions in our collection that cite this case.

• TikTok Inc. v. Garland · 604 U.S. 56 (2025)

Official text

Read the official opinion (PDF, supremecourt.gov)

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Stephen Gerald Breyer’s profile · All Supreme Court opinions · The Supreme Court

Source: Supreme Court of the United States, slip opinions (2022). Citation count from the Free Law Project’s CourtListener bulk data. Data last verified 2026-08-15. Informational only; verify against the primary source before relying. Not a consumer report (FCRA).