The Supreme Court on Thursday shut down efforts by a detainee at Guantánamo Bay to obtain information from two former C.I.A. contractors involved in torturing him, ruling that the inquiry would impermissibly expose state secrets.
Justice Stephen G. Breyer, writing for a badly fractured court, said the main question was whether the information sought by the detainee, known as Abu Zubaydah, would confirm the location of a C.I.A. black site, which is widely known to have been in Poland.
The justices split 6 to 3 on the question of whether the case could proceed. In dissent, Justice Neil M. Gorsuch, joined by Justice Sonia Sotomayor, said the government sought to avoid “further embarrassment for past misdeeds.”