The Foreign Service Journal, September 2005

vene, out of concern that such a review is an impermissible intru- sion by the judicial branch into the authority of the executive branch. On occasion, a court might find that the interest being pur- sued by the employee — for example, a discrimination claim — is sufficiently important to permit a trial with appropriate limitations on the disclosure of classified information. But even in these circumstances, the court might choose not to review the basis for the security clearance revocation. Know Your Rights Given the tremendous amount of discretion given to DS and the Security Appeal Panel, and the extremely lim- ited due process and appeal rights afforded to the employ- ee, it is vital for all employees to know their rights and to call upon their advocates early in the process to interact with investiga- tors and clearance adjudicators. Employees are guaranteed the right to have an AFSA attorney and/or private attorney represent them during a DS investigation and throughout the security revocation process. (If the employee remains overseas dur- ing the initial phase of the inves- tigation, as in the hypothetical situation described at the beginning of this article, AFSA attorneys will gladly arrange to participate in meetings with the agents via speaker phone.) Again, note that DS is not required to inform employees of those rights: they must request such rep- resentation. n F O C U S S E P T E M B E R 2 0 0 5 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 61 Given the tremendous amount of discretion given to DS and the Security Appeal Panel, it is vital for all employees to call upon their advocates early in the process.