Opinion ID: 2960271
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The Interpretation of the NSL Statutes

Text: In assessing these contentions, we need to interpret the nondisclosure requirements before ruling on their constitutionality. As set forth above in notes 7 and 9, subsection 2709(c) specifies what senior FBI officials must certify to trigger the nondisclosure requirement, and subsection 3511(b) specifies, in similar but not identical language, what a district court must find in order to modify or set aside such a requirement. Senior FBI officials must certify that in the absence of a nondisclosure requirement “there may result a danger to the national security of the United States, interference with a criminal, counterterrorism, or counterintelligence investigation, interference with diplomatic relations, or danger to the life or physical safety of any person.” 18 U.S.C. § 2709(c)(1). Upon challenge by an NSL recipient, a district court may modify or set aside a nondisclosure requirement “if it finds that there is no reason -27- to believe that disclosure may endanger the national security of the United States, interfere with a criminal, counterterrorism, or counterintelligence investigation, interfere with diplomatic relations, or endanger the life or physical safety of any person.” Id. § 3511(b)(2). These provisions present three issues for interpretation: (1) what is the scope of the enumerated harms? (2) what justifies a nondisclosure requirement? and (3) which side has the burden of proof? The enumerated harms. The first issue concerns the scope of the language identifying the enumerated harms. It is the risk of these harms that senior FBI officials must certify in order to impose the nondisclosure requirement. These harms are “danger to the national security of the United States, interference with a criminal, counterterrorism, or counterintelligence investigation, interference with diplomatic relations, or danger to the life or physical safety of any person.” 18 U.S.C. § 2709(c)(1). The last phrase is particularly troublesome. It could extend the Government’s power to impose secrecy to a broad range of information relevant to such matters as ordinary tortious conduct, based on the risk of “danger to the physical safety of any person.” A secrecy requirement of such broad scope would present highly problematic First Amendment issues. However, this potential reach of the nondisclosure requirement can be reined in if all the enumerated harms are keyed to the same standard that governs -28- information sought by an NSL, i.e., “relevant to an authorized investigation to protect against international terrorism or clandestine intelligence activities.” Id. § 2709(b)(1), (2). At oral argument, the Government wisely urged us to avoid this problem by construing the scope of the enumerated harms in light of the purposes for which an NSL is issued. We readily accept that view of the nondisclosure requirement, thereby at least narrowing, though not eliminating, the First Amendment issues. Thus, we will adjudicate the constitutionality of the nondisclosure requirement in subsection 2709(c) by construing this requirement to apply only when senior FBI officials certify that disclosure may result in an enumerated harm that is related to “an authorized investigation to protect against international terrorism or clandestine intelligence activities.” Id. The required showing. The second issue concerns what must be shown to maintain a nondisclosure requirement upon judicial review. A district court, considering a challenge filed within one year of the issuance of an NSL, is authorized to modify or set aside a nondisclosure requirement “if it finds that there is no reason to believe that disclosure may” risk one of the enumerated harms. 18 U.S.C. § 3511(b)(2). At oral argument, the Government took the position that “reason” in the quoted phrase means “good reason.” We accept this common-sense understanding of subsection 3511(b)(2). Cf. McGehee v. Casey, 718 F.2d 1137, 1148 (D.C. Cir. 1983) (“[C]ourts -29- . . . must . . . satisfy themselves . . . that the CIA in fact had good reason to classify, and therefore censor, the materials at issue.”). We take a similar view of the identical language in subsection 3511(b)(3), governing a challenge filed more than one year after issuance of an NSL. Moreover, a reason will not qualify as “good” if it surmounts only a standard of frivolousness. We understand the statutory requirement of a finding that an enumerated harm “may result” to mean more than a conceivable possibility. The upholding of nondisclosure does not require the certainty, or even the imminence of, an enumerated harm, but some reasonable likelihood must be shown. The Government acknowledges that “while the ‘reason to believe’ standard in subsection 3511(b) unquestionably contemplates a deferential standard of review, in no way does it foreclose a court from evaluating the reasonableness of the FBI’s judgments.” Reply Br. for Appellants at 9. The burden of proof. The third issue concerns the burden of proof applicable to the finding contemplated by subsection 3511(b)(2). Does this provision mean that, in order to have a district court modify or set aside a nondisclosure requirement, an ECSP must persuade a court that there is no good reason to believe that disclosure may risk one of the enumerated harms, or that, in order to maintain a nondisclosure requirement, the Government must persuade a court that there is a good -30- reason to believe that disclosure may risk one of the enumerated harms? As the Government acknowledged at oral argument, subsection 3511(b) is silent as to the burden of proof. The Government also acknowledged at oral argument that these provisions should be understood to place on the Government the burden to persuade a district court that there is a good reason to believe that disclosure may risk one of the enumerated harms, and that a district court, in order to modify or set aside a nondisclosure order, must find that such a good reason exists, rather than find the negative, i.e., that no good reason exists to believe that disclosure may risk one of the enumerated harms. We agree. Under the principles outlined above, we are satisfied that we may accept the Government’s concessions on all three matters of statutory interpretation without trenching on Congress’s prerogative to legislate. See Thirty-Seven Photographs, 402 U.S. at 368-70; Monsanto, 924 F.2d at 1198-1202; Lee, 538 F.2d at 33. We will therefore construe subsection 2709(c)(1) to mean that the enumerated harms must be related to “an authorized investigation to protect against international terrorism or clandestine intelligence activities,” 18 U.S.C. § 2709(b)(1), (2), and construe subsections 3511(b)(2) and (3) to place on the Government the burden to persuade a district court that there is a good reason to believe that disclosure may result in one of the enumerated harms, and to mean that -31- a district court, in order to modify or set aside a nondisclosure order, must find that such a good reason exists.