Constitutional Law

ACS Issue Brief: On Transparency and Secrecy

In his new ACS Issue Brief, University of Chicago Law Professor Geoffrey R. Stone called for a rebalancing of governmental secrecy and accountability. He wrote that “the Bush Administration has tilted too far in the direction of secrecy at the expense of accountability and informed self-governance. Although the danger to the United States is real and not to be underestimated, so too is the danger of an overly aggressive insistence on secrecy.”

After evaluating the right to publish secrets and the right to know secrets, Professor Stone issued four policy recommendations:

1. The executive should only be allowed to classify information when “the potential harm to the national security outweighs the value of the disclosure to public access.” This should be accomplished either through an executive order or an amendment to the Freedom of Information Act.
2. Greater protection should be afforded to national security whistleblowers through enactment of the Federal Employee Protection of Disclosures Act.
3. The state secrets privilege should be clarified and limited through enactment of the State Secrets Protection Act.
4. Journalists should be afforded a qualified privilege through enactment of the Free Flow of Information Act.

The ACS Issue Brief, “On Secrecy and Transparency: Thoughts for Congress and a New Administration,” is available here. Professor Stone will explore government secrecy and public access to information as part of a panel discussion at next week’s ACS National Convention.

Full post as published by ACS Blog on June 05, 2008 (boomark / email).