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The Use of Prior Restraints on Publication in the Age of Wikileaks

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The Use of Prior Restraints on Publication in the Age of Wikileaks 35 6 June 2018 Patent Volume 35 ▲ Number 6 ▲ JUNE 2018 Ronald L. Johnston, Arnold & Porter, LLP, Editor-in-Chief The Use of Prior Restraints on Publication in the Age of Wikileaks By CJ Griffin and Frank Corrado s James Madison put it, “A popular Government, The rationale for that principle is simple: If the gov- Awithout popular information, or the means of ernment can ban publication of speech, it can control acquiring it, is but a Prologue to a Farce or a Tragedy; or, what the public knows about governmental operations perhaps both. Knowledge will forever govern ignorance: and thereby deprive citizens of their ability to make And a people who mean to be their own Governors, intelligent decisions about governmental action. Too must arm themselves with the power which knowl- often, government favors secrecy over disclosure. The edge gives.”1 Free speech is essential to effective self- presumption against prior restraints ensures that officials government. A democracy cannot function if its citi- cannot indulge that propensity. It prevents the govern- zens do not know what their government is doing. ment from enjoining purportedly “secret” or “sensitive” For that reason, the First Amendment significantly information that may really be embarrassing, unsavory, limits the government’s ability to control the flow or indicative of government illegality or abuse. of information to the public. In particular, the First Of course, legitimate reasons exist for government Amendment renders prior restraints on speech pre- secrecy. As the Supreme Court said in Near v. Minne- sumptively unconstitutional.2 Even if the government sota,3 the seminal case on prior restraints, “no one would could punish the speech after the fact, it cannot—absent question but that a government might prevent actual a heavy burden of justification—prohibit the publica- obstruction to its recruiting service or the publica- tion of that speech. tion of the sailing dates of transports or the number or location of troops.”4 But given the First Amendment values involved, such circumstances are viewed as the exception, not the rule. Under the Constitution, the CJ Griffin is a partner at Pashman Stein Walder Hayden, P.C., government cannot simply invoke a “national security” in Hackensack, New Jersey where she is a member of the firm’s shibboleth as a basis to prohibit speech. media law practice. Frank Corrado is a partner at Barry, The most famous example of this is New York Times Corrado, & Grassi, P.C., in Wildwood, New Jersey where he 5 practices civil rights and constitutional law, with an emphasis on v. United States, in which the government sought to the First Amendment. This article is reprinted with permission prohibit The New York Times and The Washington Post from the December 2016, New Jersey State Bar Association's from publishing excerpts from the Pentagon Papers, award-winning New Jersey Lawyer. a government-compiled history of the United States’ Volume 35 • Number 6 • June 2018 The Computer & Internet Lawyer • 1 First Amendment First Amendment involvement in the Vietnam War. The Times and the lications, perhaps because it was not aware in advance of Post obtained the papers from Daniel Ellsberg, a the leaks. But Vault 7 presents a scenario where the gov- former Defense Department employee, who leaked ernment is aware in advance of a possible publication them in “hop[es] that they would help expose gov- that it deems to be a threat to both national security and ernment deception” and end the war.6 The Supreme the privacy of citizens. Court rejected the government’s claim that publica- Although Wikileaks claims it will not release the tion of the papers would endanger national security. actual code until technology companies have been Instead, it affirmed the trial court’s determination that given time to repair the security flaws in their prod- the government had not justified an injunction but ucts,18 Wikileaks has demonstrated its repeated inten- merely feared “embarrassment . .we must learn to tion to disclose as many government secrets as possible. live with.”7 Inevitably, then, the government will be faced with a Today, with the advent of the Internet, the tension scenario in which it is aware of a pending leak that it between the government’s legitimate need for secrecy deems harmful to national security. and the public’s right to information has increased Given the absence of any recent Supreme Court exponentially. As a result, the issue of when a prior precedent on prior restraints where national security restraint is justified has acquired new urgency. issues are at stake, and given the Trump administration’s In the last decade, the most prominent purveyor of proclaimed anger against the media’s use of anonymous “secret” information about the inner workings of gov- sources sharing leaked confidential information,19 it is ernment has been Wikileaks.8 In 2010, Wikileaks pub- plausible that the government may seek prior restraints lished leaked documents about the Iraq and Afghanistan against Wikileaks or other media agencies. To do so, it wars.9 It gained national attention again in 2016, when would need to establish that the matter at hand consti- it was accused of conspiring with Russia to influ- tuted one of the exceptional cases referred to in Near ence the presidential election by publishing leaked (or and New York Times v. United States. hacked) emails from the Democratic National Com- The decision in United States v. The Progressive20 sug- mittee and Hillary Clinton’s campaign manager, John gests how a court might rule in a prior restraint case Podesta.10 involving the types of disclosures at issue in Vault 7. In In March of this year, Wikileaks released the “larg- Progressive, a magazine was about to publish an article est ever publication of confidential documents on [the titled “The H-Bomb Secret; How We Got It, Why We’re CIA],”11 which it titled “Vault 7.” Wikileaks claims the Telling It.”21 The government sought an order barring Vault 7 documents demonstrate the CIA has the capa- the magazine from publishing parts of the article that bility to hack encrypted smartphones and personal “describe[d] the essential design and operation of ther- computers, and to turn smart televisions into eavesdrop- monuclear weapons.”22 ping devices.12 In response, the Progressive argued that the public had Although the CIA has not acknowledged that the a right to know and debate over the use of such weap- documents are authentic, former CIA chiefs have said ons by the government.23 The case thus presented “a leaking these documents has made the United States basic confrontation between the First Amendment right and the world less safe. One CIA agent anonymously to freedom of the press and national security.”24 told the media the disclosure was more significant than The Progressive court distinguished the New York Times the Edward Snowden leaks.13 In Wikileaks’s own words, case by noting that the Pentagon Papers contained “his- the leaked documents detail the CIA’s entire “hacking torical data” that were anywhere from three to 20 years arsenal.”14 old, while the case before it presented technical data Meanwhile, intelligence officials and computer about a current hydrogen bomb program.25 Importantly, security experts are preparing for Wikileaks’ next pos- the court noted that in New York Times, the government sible move—publication of the CIA’s computer code had only proven that “embarrassment” would result if the for its alleged cyberweapons.15 Wikileaks has said it Pentagon Papers were released, but the Progressive’s pub- would not release the code “‘until a consensus emerges lication of the technical data created a serious national on the technical and political nature of the C.I.A.’s security issue. Though the court held that the technical program’ and how the cyberweapons could be dis- data probably did not provide a “do-it-yourself guide” armed.”16 that would assist individuals in building a hydrogen Although the government says Wikileaks’ prior leaks bomb, it found that information could nonetheless “pos- have harmed national security and has suggested it might sibly provide sufficient information to allow a medium one day prosecute Wikileaks for leaking such informa- size nation to move faster in developing a hydrogen tion,17 it has never attempted to restrain Wikileaks’ pub- weapon.”26 Given that only five other nations currently 2 • The Computer & Internet Lawyer Volume 35 • Number 6 • June 2018 First Amendment had a hydrogen bomb, the court feared disclosure might Notes contribute to the proliferation of such weapons.27 1. James Madison, letter to W.T. Barry, August 4, 1822, in Writings, The court then focused on a key tension between 9:103–109. the First Amendment and national security. In a 2. Bantam Books, Inc. v. Sullivan, 372 U.S. 58, 70 (1963). lengthy discussion, the court concluded that where 3. 283 U.S. 697 (1931). serious questions of life or death are concerned, the 4. Id. at 716. First Amendment must yield to national security: 5. New York Times v. United States, 403 U.S. 713 (1971). “While it may be true in the long-run, as Patrick 6. Kyle Lewis, “Wikifreak-Out: The Legality of Prior Restraints Henry instructs us, that one would prefer death to on Wikileaks’ Publication of Government Documents,” 38 life without liberty, nonetheless, in the short-run, one Wash U.J.J. & Pol’y 417, 427 (2012). 7. United States v. New York Times Co., 328 F. Supp. 324, 331 cannot enjoy freedom of speech, freedom to worship (S.D.N.Y. 1971). or freedom of the press unless one first enjoys the free- 8.
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