Legal precedent A 1953 Supreme Court decision, United States verses Reynolds that is the corner stone of national security secrecy policy; the “state secrets privilege” relied on false government information to provide the precedential basis for asserting that there are “military matters which in the interests of national security should not be divulged”. Three employees of the Radio Corporation of America, an Air Force contractor, were killed when a B-29 Superfortress crashed in 1948 in Waycross, Georgia. Their widows brought an action in tort seeking damages in federal court, under the Federal Tort Claims Act. As part of this action, they requested production of accident reports concerning the crash, but were told by the Air Force that the release of such details would threaten national security. Because of the failure of the government to produce the documents, a directed verdict in favor of the plaintiffs was granted by the trial court. The judgment was affirmed by the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. The United States Supreme Court reversed the decision, and remanded it to the trial court. After this, a settlement was reached with the widows, who received an aggregate sum of $170,000 in exchange for a release of liability to the Government
Posted on: Wed, 04 Sep 2013 07:03:01 +0000
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