"Born secret" and "born classified" are both terms which refer to a policy of information being classified from the moment of its inception, usually regardless of where it was created, and usually in reference to specific laws in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

that are related to information that describes the operation of

nuclear weapons A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission (fission bomb) or a combination of fission and fusion reactions (thermonuclear bomb), producing a nuclear explosion. Both bomb ...

. It has been extensively used in reference to a clause in the

Atomic Energy Act of 1946 The Atomic Energy Act of 1946 (McMahon Act) determined how the United States would control and manage the nuclear technology it had jointly developed with its World War II allies, the United Kingdom and Canada. Most significantly, the Act rule ...

, which specified that all information about

nuclear weapon A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission (fission bomb) or a combination of fission and fusion reactions ( thermonuclear bomb), producing a nuclear explosion. Both bom ...

s and

nuclear energy Nuclear energy may refer to: *Nuclear power, the use of sustained nuclear fission or nuclear fusion to generate heat and electricity * Nuclear binding energy, the energy needed to fuse or split a nucleus of an atom *Nuclear potential energy ...

was to be considered "Restricted Data" (RD) until it had been officially declassified. In the 1954 revision of the Act, the

United States Atomic Energy Commission The United States Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) was an agency of the United States government established after World War II by U.S. Congress to foster and control the peacetime development of atomic science and technology. President H ...

was given the power to declassify entire categories of information. The "born secret" policy was created under the assumption that nuclear information could be so important to

national security National security, or national defence, is the security and defence of a sovereign state, including its citizens, economy, and institutions, which is regarded as a duty of government. Originally conceived as protection against military atta ...

that it would need classification before it could be formally evaluated. The wording of the 1954 act specified as secret: The

constitutionality Constitutionality is said to be the condition of acting in accordance with an applicable constitution; "Webster On Line" the status of a law, a procedure, or an act's accordance with the laws or set forth in the applicable constitution. When l ...

of declaring entire categories of information preemptively classified has not been definitively tested in the courts. The legality of the "born secret" doctrine was directly challenged in a

freedom of the press Freedom of the press or freedom of the media is the fundamental principle that communication and expression through various media, including printed and electronic News media, media, especially publication, published materials, should be conside ...

case in 1979 ('' United States v. The Progressive''). In that case, a magazine attempted to publish an account of the so-called "secret of the hydrogen bomb" (the

Teller–Ulam design A thermonuclear weapon, fusion weapon or hydrogen bomb (H bomb) is a second-generation nuclear weapon design. Its greater sophistication affords it vastly greater destructive power than first-generation nuclear bombs, a more compact size, a lowe ...

), which was apparently created without recourse to classified information. Many analysts predicted that the US Supreme Court would, if it heard the case, reject the "born secret" clause as being an unconstitutional restraint on speech. However, the government dropped the case as

moot Moot may refer to: * Mootness, in American law: a point where further proceedings have lost practical significance; whereas in British law: the issue remains debatable * Moot court, an activity in many law schools where participants take part in s ...

before it was resolved.

References

* {{Cite journal, author=Howard Morland, title=Born Secret, journal= Cardozo Law Review, date= March 2005, pages= 1401–1408, url=http://www.fas.org/sgp/eprint/cardozo.pdf

External links

Interview with George Stanford
from 1994 on his experiences in the ''Progressive'' trial. Nuclear secrecy United States government secrecy

See also

References

External links