Two lower court judges had issued conflicting rulings in lawsuits brought by Hashmi and Abdur-Rashid related to their surveillance after the NYPD responded to 2012 records requests by invoking Glomar. The judges said although the state's public records law wouldn't specifically prohibit an agency from invoking the Glomar doctrine, it should submit detailed affidavits to show the information falls within certain exemptions. "We are all safer because of this ruling, which confirms that the NYPD is not required to reveal the targets of counterterrorism surveillance," said Nick Paolucci, a spokesman for the city's Law Department. Omar Mohammedi, the attorney who represented the two men, Samir Hashmi and Talib Abdur-Rashid, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. An appellate court ruled Thursday that the New York Police Department was justified in using a Cold War-era federal legal doctrine to neither confirm nor deny the existence of records related to investigators' surveillance of two Muslim men that were requested under state open records law.

Source: ABC News June 02, 2016 23:48 UTC