THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT AND NATIONAL SECURITY SECRECY: HOW IT'S WORKS AFTER TWO YEARS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP88-01314R000100530010-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: October 15, 2004
• Sequence Number: 10
• Publication Date: December 1, 1976
• Content Type: MISC

8-01314R000100530010-6
irst Princi1E.$
NATIONAL SECURITY AND CIVIL LIBERTIES
DECEMBER 1976 VOL. 2, NO. 4
Also In This Issue : They Do Shoot Straight
BY MORTON H. HALPERIN, p.16
In the News, In the Literature, and In
the Courts, p. 13
The Freedom of Information Act
and National Security Secrecy:
How It's Working After Two Years
BY CHRISTINE M. MARWICK
Although we are regularly told that our republican
form of government is based on the informed consent
of the governed, it was not until the passing of the
Freedom of Information Act in 1966 that the public
had, for the first time, a legal right to some of the
records that federal agencies had on hand. And it was
not until November, 1974 that Congress passed -
over a presidential veto - amendments to the FOIA
which gave the public an affirmative, if also limited,
right to information dealing with the national
security. Information may now be withheld only if it is
properly classified according to the executive's own
standards, and judges have the power to decide anew
whether information had in fact been properly
classified.
It is now two years since Congress established this
right of access, and we are now in a position to make
some judgments about how the Act is doing as a
wedge into what had at one time been the executive
branch's exclusive preserve. This article narrows its
focus to two areas of the FOIA in operation: It is a
progress report first on the successes of the FOIA in
releasing information from the government, and
second, on how the courts have been dealing with the
It is at all times necessary, and more particularly so during the progress
of a revolution and until right ideas confirm themselves by habit, that
we frequently refresh our patriotism by reference to first principles.
THOMAS PAINE
Approved For Release 2004/10/28 : CIA-RDP88-01314R000100530010-6