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14 N.Y.U. J. Int'l L. & Pol. 339 (1981-1982)
Balancing National Security and Free Speech

handle is hein.journals/nyuilp14 and id is 349 raw text is: NEW YORK UNIVERSITY JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL LAW AND POLITICS VOL. 14 WINTER 1982 NO. 2 BALANCING NATIONAL SECURITY AND FREE SPEECH THOMAS M. FRANCK* JAMES J. EiSENt I. INTRODUCTION The Director of Central Intelligence has a statutory duty to protect intelligence sources and methods from unauthorized disclosure.1 He discharges this obligation in part by routinely requiring employees of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA or Agency) to sign secrecy agreements upon entering and leaving its employ.2 At the heart of these agreements is a promise by employees not to divulge without Agency approval any information relating to the Agency or its intelligence ac- tivities.3 This contractual prohibition extends to the publica- tion of manuscripts about the CIA that have not been submit- * Professor of Law and Director of the Center for Intcernational Studies, New York University. f Member of the New York Bar; J.D., New York University, 1980. 1. 50 U.S.C. §§ 403(d), (g) (1976). This responsibility is sufficiently specific to constitute an exemption from requests under the Freedom of Information Act, 5 U.S.C. § 552(b) (1976). See Baker v. Central Intelli- gence Agency, 580 F.2d 664, 667-68 (D.C. Cir. 1978). It has also bccn held to justify defamation that is designed to expose Soviet spies in the United States. Hein v. Raus, 339 F.2d 785, 789-90 (4th Cir. 1968), cer. drnitd, 402 U.S. 914 (1971). 2. See generally Comment, Governmnt Secrecy Agreements and the First Amendment, 28 Am. U.L. Rev. 395, 397-400 (1979). 3. Employee Secrecy Agreement between the CIA and Frank Sncpp, III (Sept. 16, 1968), reprinted in Petition for Certiorari, Appendix at 58a, 59a, Snepp v. United States, 444 U.S. 507 (1980) [hereinafter Sccrccy Agreement]. Snepp's secrecy agreement is typical of the agrccmcnts that the CIA requires its agents to sign as a prerequisite to commencing employ- ment with the Agency. 339 Imaged with the Permission of N.Y.U. Journal of International Law and Politics