COUNTER-ESPIONAGE APPARATUS.'

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00149R000300510009-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: November 17, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 19, 1999
• Sequence Number: 9
• Content Type: NSPR

FOIAb3a
000/08/27: CIA-RDP75-00149R000300510009-7
!CFuyCel'-e! Tnage apparatus.!'
stand. Perhaps the most germane cased
As United States V. Patricia J. Reynolds,
a civil suit involving privilege, which
went to the Sup-erne Court In 1052. There,
Chief Justice . Vinson upheld the;,
Government's right o: privilege In denying:
.the use in cour of !unnents pertaining.
to a military-p.,.:,a c ash because the doe-,
uments contained secret information on
equipment aboard the plane. Chief Justice,
Vinson's decision noted the difficulties; i
of the question.
"Judicial experience with the privilege
which protects military and state secrets
has been limited in phis country," his de-.
cision began. ". . . Nevertheless, the prin-
cipals which control the application of",'
privilege emerge quite clearly from the,
available precedents. The privilege be-.,
longs to the Government and must be as-
serted by It." But, the Chief Justice
wrote, "it Is not to be lightly Invoked."
For Judge Thomson then, an Important i?
legal problem has emerged from the drab'
cocoon of a routine civil suit. The right
of privilege Is "In the public interest." It
may well be In ~i)e public interest to de-
stroy a man's rc;)utation if that man, as
a spy, is a pub-i:-; oncray. Ilut it is also,
in' the public interest that every individ-
ual be able .to defend himself. This is the
t~CY 17 1% proved For Release .2000108/27 : CIA-RDP75-00149R000300510009-7