Court Opinion

ID: 9458684
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 20:59:23.558326+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:35:51.760107
License: Public Domain

CRAVEN, Circuit Judge
(concurring) :
I agree that “[t]he conduct of the foreign relations of our government is committed by the Constitution to the executive and legislative — ‘the political’ — departments of the government, and the propriety of what may be done in the exercise of this political power is not subject to judicial inquiry or decision.” Oetjen v. Central Leather Co., 246 U.S. 297, 302, 38 S.Ct. 309, 311, 62 L.Ed. 726, 732 (1917).
I concur in the opinion of the court except for the statement that the classification of documents and information by the executive is not subject to judicial review. Because the national security may be involved and because of the expertise of the executive, I would resolve any doubt about the reasonableness of a classification in favor of the government. If the burden were put upon one who assails the classification, and surely it ought to be, much of the difficulty envisioned in the court’s opinion would presumably disappear. Indeed, I would not object to a presumption of reasonableness, and a requirement that the assailant demonstrate by clear and convincing evidence that a classification is arbitrary and capricious before it may be invalidated.
But however difficult the adjudication of the reasonableness of a secrecy classification, I cannot subscribe to a flat rule that it may never be attempted. The “right to know” is in a period of gestation. I think that the people will increasingly insist upon knowing what their government is doing and that, because this knowledge is vital to govern*1319ment by the people, the “right to know” will grow. I am not yet ready to foreclose any inquiry into whether or not secrecy classifications are reasonable. To protect those that are does not require that we also protect the frivolous and the absurd.
Other than my doubt about the insulation of a classification system from judicial review, I fully concur in the opinion of the court.