National security[edit]
Military secrets[edit]
Publishing, gathering, or collecting national security information is not protected speech in the United States.[50] Information related to "the national defense" is protected even though no harm to the national security is intended or is likely to be caused through its disclosure.[51] Non-military information with the potential to cause serious damage to the national security is only protected from willful disclosure with the requisite intent or knowledge regarding the potential harm.[51] The unauthorized creation, publication, sale, or transfer of photographs or sketches of vital defense installations or equipment as designated by the President is prohibited.[52] The knowing and willful disclosure of certain classified information is prohibited.[53] The unauthorized communication by anyone of "Restricted Data", or an attempt or conspiracy to communicate such data, is prohibited.[54] It is prohibited for a person who learns of the identity of a covert agent through a "pattern of activities intended to identify and expose covert agents" to disclose the identity to any individual not authorized access to classified information, with reason to believe that such activities would impair U.S. foreign intelligence efforts.[55]
In addition to the criminal penalties, the use of employment contracts, loss of government employment, monetary penalties, non-disclosure agreements, forfeiture of property, injunctions, revocation of passports, and prior restraint are used to deter such speech.[56]
Inventions[edit]
The Voluntary Tender Act of 1917 gave the Commissioner of Patents the authority to withhold certification from inventions that might harm U.S. national security, and to turn the invention over to the United States government for its own use.[57][58] It was replaced in 1951 with the Invention Secrecy Act which prevented inventors from publishing inventions or sharing the information.[59] Both attached criminal penalties to subjected inventors.[60] The United States was under a declared state of emergency from 1950–1974, after which peacetime secrecy orders were available.[61][62][63]
The government issued between approximately 4,100 to 5,000 orders per year from 1959 to 1974, a peak of 6,193 orders in 1991, and approximately 5,200 per year between from 1991 to 2003.[63] Certain areas of research such as atomic energy and cryptography consistently fall within their gamut.[64] The government has placed secrecy orders on cold fusion, space technology, radar missile systems, and Citizens Band radio voice scramblers, and attempts have been made to extend them to optical-engineering research and vacuum technology.[64]
Nuclear information[edit]
The Atomic Energy Act of 1954 automatically classifies "all data concerning (1) design, manufacture, or utilization of atomic weapons; (2) the production of special nuclear material; or (3) the use of special nuclear material in the production of energy".[65] The government has attempted and failed to prohibit publication of nuclear information, including bomb design, in Scientific American in 1950 and The Progressive in 1979.[66][65]
Weapons[edit]
Pub.L. 106–54 of 1999, a bill focused on phosphate prospecting and compensation owed to the Menominee tribe, added 18 U.S.C. § 842(p) making it an offence "to teach or demonstrate the making or use of an explosive, a destructive device, or a weapon of mass destruction, or to distribute by any means information pertaining to, in whole or in part, the manufacture or use of an explosive, destructive device, or weapon of mass destruction" either intending or knowing that the learner/viewer intends "that the teaching, demonstration, or information be used for, or in furtherance of, an activity that constitutes a Federal crime of violence".[67][68] This is in addition to other federal laws preventing the use and dissemination of bombmaking information for criminal purposes.[69] The law was first successfully used against an 18-year-old anarchist in 2003, for distribution of information which has since been republished freely.[70]
Freedom of speech in the United States - Wikipedia
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