Again, this has to do with the First Amendment, which is a unique
creature even among democracies. (Most of the time good,
occasionally--as in Adolph Hitler Campbell--bad.) Unless the person
agrees to secrecy, it is a violation of their rights of free speech to
prohibit dissemination of information.
Of course, that does not prohibit certain kinds of information from
being kept secret, such as the information in the Federal Privacy Act (5
U.S.C. section 552 et sec.) or statutes on trade secret law. But unless
covered by these or similar statutes, or by contractual obligation, the
First Amendment does protect speech that reveals governmental operations.
Bryan M. Carson
Bryan M. Carson, J.D., M.I.L.S.
Ed.D. Student
Higher Ed. Leadership & Policy, Vanderbilt University/Peabody College
Associate Professor/Coordinator of Reference & Instructional Services
Western Kentucky University Libraries
Author, "The Law of Libraries and Archives" (Scarecrow Press)
Phone: 270-745-5007 (Office), 270-991-7144 (cell)
Fax: 270-745-2275
bryan.m.carson@vanderbilt.edu - bryan.carson@wku.edu
All original content copyright 2008 Bryan M. Carson
Ronald Huttner wrote:
> This is interesting to me. Is there not legislation at both the
> federal and state levels in the USA that imposes obligations of
> secrecy on government employees without them having to specifically
> sign secrecy agreements ? There is certainly such legislation in
> Australia. I worked in our federal Attorney-General's Department for
> 20 years and was at all times bound to secrecy by a range of
> provisions in the Public Service Act. I cannot recall ever being
> required to sign any sort of written agreement. But at the time I
> joined the Australian Public Service in 1975 I was given plenty of
> hand-out literature about my obligation of secrecy under the Act and
> about the criminal offences and penalties for breaching that secrecy.
> And there are numerous other acts dealing with public servants working
> in specific areas of government - e.g. the Australian Taxation Office,
> The Office Of The Director Of Public Prosecutions, the Australian
> Crime Commission, The Australian Consumer And Competition Commission -
> binding them to even more stringent secrecy. I would, frankly, be
> amazed if the issue of secrecy of governmental information in the USA
> were solely a matter for agreements rather than legislation.
>
> Ron Huttner LL.B (Hons)
> (Retired) Barrister, Solicitor, Law Lecturer and Legal Researcher
> Melbourne
> Victoria
> Australia
>
>
> On 18/12/2008, at 8:52 AM, Keller, Sandra Kay M wrote:
>
>> Hello law-libers,
>>
>> I have a patron who is trying to found out the number of federal
>> government employees who have signed secrecy agreements, i.e., they
>> have agreed not to reveal certain government information to outside
>> individuals. The last information he had was a statement by Senator
>> Daniel Moynihan in 1996 that there were more than 3 million of these
>> employees. This was in his introduction to Shils, The Torment of
>> Secrecy. He would like to update this information. The Senator did
>> not cite a source for his figure.
>>
>> I have not been successful in my search and would appreciate any
>> ideas or leads for this information. I have sent the patron
>> information about these sites:
>> http://www.openthegovernment.org/otg/SecrecyReportCard08.pdf
>>
>> http://www.openthegovernment.org/govtsecrecy.pdf
>>
>> http://www.thecqresearcher.com (report of Dec. 2, 2005, “Government
>> Secrecy.”)
>>
>> and have searched Google Scholar, Academic Search Elite, JSTOR, PAIS,
>> ISI Web of Knowledge, and the Homeland Security Digital Library. I
>> also suggested the CQ Electronic Library.
>>
>> It is possible that the patron will turn up something after closer
>> inspection of these sites or contacting people mentioned in them, but
>> I thought there might be someone on this list who could steer us in
>> the right direction. Any help will be very much appreciated.
>>
>> Thank you.
>>
>> Sandy Keller
>> Reference Librarian
>> University of Iowa Law Library
>> mailto:sandra-keller@uiowa.edu
>
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