On March 23, 2015, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York dismissed a defamation case against an anti-Iran non-profit organization after the U.S. government intervened invoking the state secrets privilege in Restis v. American Coalition Against Nuclear Iran (ACNI). Mr. Restis, a Greek national and owner of a shipping business that engaged in business transactions with Iran, filed a defamation suit against the ACNI alleging the organization had attempted to destroy his company’s reputation. The U.S. government intervened, submitting a motion to dismiss on the basis of state secret privilege—“a common law evidentiary rule that allows the government to withhold information from discovery when disclosure would be inimical to national security.” The plaintiffs filed a motion to compel the government to explain its assertion of the privilege, but the Court, citing Trulock v. Lee, reasoned that “the public interest in national security must take precedence over allowing [the plaintiff’s] case to proceed” and ruled that “allowing the litigation to proceed would inevitably risk the disclosure of state secrets.”