Opinion ID: 3172147
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The National Security Council

Text: In the National Security Act of 1947, Pub. L. No. 80‐253, § 101, 61 Stat. 495, 496–97 (codified as amended at 50 U.S.C. § 3021), Congress created a National Security Council (“Council”) and assigned it “[t]he function . . . to advise the President with respect to the integration of domestic, foreign, and military policies relating to the national security so as to enable the military services and the other departments and agencies of the Government to cooperate more effectively in matters involving the national security,” 50 U.S.C. § 3021(a).2 The statute denominates the President as the presiding officer of the Council, on which serve certain statutorily identified officials, including the Vice President which documents are subject to exemption would arise, however, only if the NSC is an agency subject to the FOIA. That issue is the sole focus of this appeal. 2 The National Security Act, together with its 1949 amendments, (1) “created the Department of Defense and brought together under it the Army, Navy, and Air Force”; (2) “created a Central Intelligence Agency for the collation and appraisal, at one central point, of world intelligence relating to our national security”; (3) “created the National Security Resources Board . . . to advise the President concerning the coordination of military, industrial, and civilian mobilization”; and (4) “established the National Security Council,” all in order to facilitate “integration of national security policy at the highest level.” Dillon Anderson [National Security Advisor to President Dwight D. Eisenhower], The President and National Security, Atl. Monthly, Jan. 1956 (internal quotation marks omitted), reprinted in 2 Subcomm. on Nat’l Policy Mach. to the S. Comm. on Gov’t Operations, 87th Cong., Organizing for National Security (“Organizing for Nat’l Sec.”) 159, 161 (Comm. Print 1961). 5 and the Secretaries of State, Defense, and Energy, as well as other persons appointed by the President. See id.3