National Security Classification

Executive Orders

Presidential Memoranda and White House Statements

Departments, Agencies, and Offices with Classification Authority

Classification

Declassification

FOIA Exemption 1 Cases

Commentary and News

The classification and protection of information on national security grounds has historical antecedents tracing back to the founding of the Nation but is of relatively recent vintage, arising in the post-World War II era with the dawn of the “atomic age” and the “Cold War.” See, e.g., The Nature of Government Secrecy, 26 Gov’t Info. Quarterly 305 (2009). Or in the words of the current executive order on national security classification, Executive Order 13,526(Dec. 29, 2009): “[T]hroughout our history, the national defense has required that certain information be maintained in confidence in order to protect our citizens, our democratic institutions, our homeland security, and our interactions with foreign nations.” In a post-9/11 world, this now includes matters of transnational terrorism and, from a homeland security standpoint, “weapons of mass destruction.”

Founded on presidential authority and responsibility under Article III of the Constitution, this realm of secrecy connects both to the withholding of requested information under Exemption 1 of the Freedom of Information Act and to the invocation of what is known as the state secrets privilegein non-FOIA litigation. But it is distinct from the realm of “pseudosecrecy,” in which agencies apply the “safeguarding” label of “Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI)” to records under Executive Order 13,556(Nov. 4, 2010).

Now, after decades of national security classification actions on millions or even billions of pages of records, the matter of information declassification, including on an “automatic” and “categorical” basis, as well as through more specific “mandatory declassification review,” looms large. So, too, does the Reducing Over-Classification Act, Public Law 111-258, which became law on Oct. 7, 2010. And in this “WikiLeaks era,” matters of “leaks” of classified informationand “surveillance secrecy”abound. Details and up-to-date status information are below.

  • Executive Orders

    • President Obama
    • President George W. Bush
    • President Obama

Departments, Agencies, and Offices with Classification Authority

  • Foreign Classification Designations

Classification

    • Information Security Oversight Office (ISOO)

Declassification

    • Information Security Oversight Office Guidance (ISOO)
      • Reports

Sample FOIA Exemption 1 Decisions

  • National Security Leaks
    • Cases
      • Australia
      • Selected Books
        • Bob Woodward, Obama’s Wars, Simon & Schuster, 2010.
        • Garry Wills, Bomb Power: The Modern Presidency and the National Security State, The Penguin Press, 2010.
        • Robert M. Pallitto, William G. Weaver, Presidential Secrecy and the Law, The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2007.
        • Sam C. Sarkesian, John Allen Williams, Stephen J. Cimbala, U.S. National Security: Policymakers, Processes, and Politics, Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2007.
        • Phillip H. Melanson, Secrecy Wars: National Security, Privacy, and the Public’s Right to Know, Potomac Books, Inc., 2002.
        • Amos A. Jordan, William J. Taylor, Jr., Michael J. Mazarr, Sam Nunn,American National Security, The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1998.
        • Mark J. Rozell, Executive Privilege: Presidential Power, Secrecy and Accountability, Second Edition Revised, University Press of Kansas, 2002.
        • Daniel Patrick Moynihan, Richard Gid Power, Secrecy: The American Experience, Yale University Press, 1998.
        • Harold C. Relyea, Security Classified and Controlled Information. New York: Nova Science Publishers, 2008.
        • Disclosure of Classified Information to Congress. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1998.
        • Angus Mackenzie, Secrets: The CIA’s War at Home. University of California Press: 1997.
        • Jeffrey T. Richelson, The U.S. Intelligence Community, third edition. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1995.
        • Richard K. Willard, National Security and the First Amendment, Chicago, IL: American Bar Association, Standing Committee on Law and National Security, 1984.
        • Edward A. Shils, The Torment of Secrecy: The Background and Consequences of American Security Policies, The Free Press, 1956.
        • John M. Orman, Presidential Secrecy and Deception: Beyond the Power to Persuade, GP Greenwood Press, 1980.
      • Commentary