
Written by a group of the nation's leading constitutional scholars, a deeply informed, thoughtful, and often surprising examination of who has First Amendment rights to disclose, to obtain, or to publish classified information relating to the national security of the United States.One of the most vexing and perennial questions facing any democracy is how to balance the government's legitimate need to conduct its operations-especially those related to protecting the national security-in secret, with the public's right and responsibility to know what its government is doing. There is no easy answer to this issue, and different nations embrace different solutions. In the United States, at the constitutional level, the answer begins exactly half a century ago with the Supreme Court's landmark 1971 decision in the Pentagon Papers case. The final decision, though, left many important questions unresolved. Moreover, the issue of leaks and secrecy has cropped up repeatedly since, most recently in the Edward Snowden and Chelsea Manning cases. In National Security, Leaks and Freedom of the Press, two of America's leading First Amendment scholars, Lee C. Bollinger and Geoffrey R. Stone, have gathered a group of the nation's leading constitutional scholars-including John Brennan, Eric Holder, Cass R. Sunstein, and Michael Morell, among many others-to delve into important dimensions of the current system, to explain how we should think about them, and to offer as many solutions as possible.
This volume investigates the enduring tension between governmental secrecy required for national security and the public's right to information under the First Amendment. Edited by Lee C. Bollinger and Geoffrey R. Stone, the text compiles contributions from prominent constitutional scholars, former intelligence officials, and legal experts. The authors utilize the 1971 Pentagon Papers Supreme Court decision as a foundational framework to analyze subsequent leaks and the evolving legal landscape regarding classified information.
What You Will Find
Experts identify this collection as a comprehensive resource for understanding the legal complexities of modern whistleblowing and state secrecy. Readers frequently note the academic density of the prose, which serves as a foundational text for those studying the intersection of constitutional law and national security policy.
Page Count:
377
Publication Date:
2021-01-01
Publisher:
Oxford University Press
ISBN-10:
0197519415
ISBN-13:
9780197519417
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