Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Does the president have 'the ability to declassify anything at any time'?
PolitiFact ^ | May 16, 2017 | Louis Jacobson

Posted on 08/12/2022 4:33:46 PM PDT by ConservativeInPA

One of the members of Congress who commented after the newspaper’s revelations was Sen. James Risch, R-Idaho. According to CNN, he told reporters, "The minute the president speaks about it to someone, he has the ability to declassify anything at any time without any process."

The majority ruling in the 1988 Supreme Court case Department of Navy vs. Egan -- which addressed the legal recourse of a Navy employee who had been denied a security clearance -- addresses this line of authority.

"The President, after all, is the ‘Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States’" according to Article II of the Constitution, the court’s majority wrote. "His authority to classify and control access to information bearing on national security ... flows primarily from this constitutional investment of power in the President, and exists quite apart from any explicit congressional grant."

(Excerpt) Read more at politifact.com ...


TOPICS: Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections; US: Idaho
KEYWORDS: creepstate; declassification; deepeststate; deepstate; idaho; jamesrisch; louisjacobson; policestate; politifact; scotus; singlepartystate; trump
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 41-6061-8081-100101-116 next last
To: eyedigress

I said nothing about media.

Anyway, show me where the Constitution says anything about classification systems and classified info.

I just don’t know regardless of doc status if he had a right to take it. Unless it’s just copies of info they still have in the gov/WH.


81 posted on 08/12/2022 7:07:58 PM PDT by the OlLine Rebel (Common sense is an uncommon virtue./Federal-run medical care is as good as state-run DMV.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 80 | View Replies]

To: the OlLine Rebel

Once again, the POTUS has A NEED TO KNOW anything going on in the USA.

If documents are deemed unclassified, they are open for inquiry by anybody.

Your logic is BS. You seem to say he declassified them a month ago. Get a grip.


82 posted on 08/12/2022 7:10:56 PM PDT by eyedigress (Trump is my President!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 79 | View Replies]

To: the OlLine Rebel

SCOTUS 1988.

“The President, after all, is the ‘Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States’” according to Article II of the Constitution, the court’s majority wrote. “His authority to classify and control access to information bearing on national security ... flows primarily from this constitutional investment of power in the President, and exists quite apart from any explicit congressional grant.”

Steven Aftergood, director of the Federation of American Scientists Project on Government Secrecy, said that such authority gives the president the authority to “classify and declassify at will.”


83 posted on 08/12/2022 7:17:55 PM PDT by eyedigress (Trump is my President!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 81 | View Replies]

To: the OlLine Rebel

If it goes back to SCOTUS so be it.


84 posted on 08/12/2022 7:18:42 PM PDT by eyedigress (Trump is my President!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 81 | View Replies]

To: the OlLine Rebel

You are free to consider whether a corrupt FBI and CIA would be a threat to national security.


85 posted on 08/12/2022 7:29:58 PM PDT by eyedigress (Trump is my President!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 81 | View Replies]

To: the OlLine Rebel

You are just unlucky.

You are not president.

The constitution plainly gives the president all of the powers you doubt he has and the supreme court has heard a case in which the court concluded and stated that laws can not change that.


86 posted on 08/12/2022 7:35:00 PM PDT by old curmudgeon (There is no situation so bad that the federal government can not make worse.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 25 | View Replies]

To: Reily
How does anyone know it was done without documentation?

Because the president says it was.

He just says it?

Yes.

Would you believe Bill Clinton if he says he declassified something? Would you believe Zero? Would you believe SloJoe?

As much as I wouldn't want to, show me in writing, in the Constitution, where their powers are such limited.

87 posted on 08/12/2022 7:38:56 PM PDT by Drew68 (Ron DeSantis for President 2024)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 68 | View Replies]

To: ConservativeInPA

According to every classification guide I ever saw the President can declassify any document at any time.


88 posted on 08/12/2022 7:42:57 PM PDT by Agatsu77
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Drew68

It is documented.

The FRino faction is showing its face.


89 posted on 08/12/2022 7:44:05 PM PDT by eyedigress (Trump is my President!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 87 | View Replies]

To: TigersEye
OK, good. I could have sworn you were debating me on those points. :)

Now I’ll offer my speculation based on what we’ve been discussing.

Every President can make his own rules about what constitutes his declassification procedure. He can’t impose his rules on past presidents nor make rules for future presidents.

Indeed, this is true. There are no laws that say different. The Constitution, Article II is currently the final authority.

If 0bama says “every document I put this LGBTQ flag stamp on is declassed” it’s declassed.

Yes.

If Trump says “if I wave my hand over a box of docs it’s declassed” it’s declassed.

Yes.

If Biden says “every doc I spill ice cream on is declassed” then it’s declassed.

Yes.

And when, not if, Dwayne Elizondo Mountain Dew Camacho is elected President he can say “Any document I shoot with my machine gun is declassified” then that document is declassified.

Yes. Indeed he can.

If anything can be taken from all that it’s that it is very important that we take the election of presidents seriously. :)

Yep!

And as I've pointed out above, if congress wants to draft laws, and the president wishes to sign then, and SCOTUS will uphold them to limit executive power in regards to classified documents, then they are free to do so.

They have not yet done this.

90 posted on 08/12/2022 7:47:39 PM PDT by Drew68 (Ron DeSantis for President 2024)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 69 | View Replies]

To: Drew68
And as I've pointed out above, if congress wants to draft laws, and the president wishes to sign then, and SCOTUS will uphold them to limit executive power in regards to classified documents, then they are free to do so.

I don't think they can do that given the current wording of the Constitution and in light of the SCOTUS ruling on the absolutism of that wording. It would have to be a Constitutional amendment.

91 posted on 08/12/2022 7:58:58 PM PDT by TigersEye (The Democrat Party is criminal, unAmerican and illegitimate )
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 90 | View Replies]

To: the OlLine Rebel

You are a perfect example of why the government is so screwed up.

To you and your cohorts nothing can happen until all of the paper work is created with every “T” crossed and “i” dotted.

You are talking about the president. If you have not noticed, he has privileges and powers you and I do not have.

He does nit need to nor does he have the time to worry about all of the little crappy stuff that you do. That is why you are there...

Get over it. You are looking very foolish.


92 posted on 08/12/2022 7:59:57 PM PDT by old curmudgeon (There is no situation so bad that the federal government can not make worse.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 53 | View Replies]

To: the OlLine Rebel

U.S. government classification programs are enacted by executive order, not legislation. The President, is the original classification authority and can issue orders on how those programs can function. He is also not bound by his own orders. The President decides the “need to know.”


93 posted on 08/12/2022 8:18:33 PM PDT by drop 50 and fire for effect ("Work relentlessly, accomplish much, remain in the background, and be more than you seem.")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 53 | View Replies]

To: null and void; aragorn; EnigmaticAnomaly; kalee; Kale; AZ .44 MAG; Baynative; bgill; bitt; ...

stupid librarians trying to decide who we can and cannot vote for..


94 posted on 08/12/2022 8:41:44 PM PDT by bitt ( <img src=' 'width=50%> )
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: ConservativeInPA

Who reclassified the docs after they were declassified and never published it???????”

https://twitter.com/Checkmate2024/status/1557837508741832704


95 posted on 08/12/2022 8:42:54 PM PDT by bitt ( <img src=' 'width=50%> )
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Socon-Econ

lol...


96 posted on 08/12/2022 8:52:22 PM PDT by dragnet2 (Diversion and evasion are tools of deceit)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 23 | View Replies]

To: the OlLine Rebel
That’s a dangerous precedent. Checks & balances of various kinds have been built into the system.

Oh sure, like when top players in the government attempted to criminally undermine, compromise and overthrow a presidential candidate then a president? Got it!

97 posted on 08/12/2022 8:56:13 PM PDT by dragnet2 (Diversion and evasion are tools of deceit)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: Drew68; Reily
As I posted above, if congress wants to pass a law and have President Biden sign it that draws out procedures for the execution of executive authority in regards to declassifying documents, then they are free to do so.

No, Congress is not empowered to do so. Congress cannot lawfully enact laws to infringe upon the executive powers vested in the President by the people via the Constitution.

The entire executive power of the Federal government is vested in the President alone by Article 2 of the Constitution. Congress has no power to pass laws amending the Constitution or limiting the executive power of the President.

Navy v. Egan, 484 U.S. 518, 527 (23 Feb 1988)

The Court of Appeals' majority stated: "The absence of any statutory provision precluding appellate review of security clearance denials in section 7512 removals creates a strong presumption in favor of appellate review," citing Abbott Laboratories v. Gardner, 387 U. S. 136, 141 (1967). 802 F. 2d, at 1569. One perhaps may accept this as a general proposition of administrative law, but the proposition is not without limit, and it runs aground when it encounters concerns of national security, as in this case, where the grant of security clearance to a particular employee, a sensitive and inherently discretionary judgment call, is committed by law to the appropriate agency of the Executive Branch.

The President, after all, is the "Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States." U. S. Const., Art. II, § 2. His authority to classify and control access to information bearing on national security and to determine whether an individual is sufficiently trustworthy to occupy a position in the Executive Branch that will give that person access to such information flows primarily from this constitutional investment of power in the President and exists quite apart from any explicit congressional grant. See Cafeteria Workers v. McElroy, 367 U. S. 886, 890 (1961). This Court has recognized the Government's "compelling interest" in withholding national security information from unauthorized persons in the course of executive business. Snepp v. United States, 444 U. S. 507, 509, n. 3 (1980). See also United States v. Robel, 389 U. S. 258, 267 (1967); United States v. Reynolds, 345 U. S. 1, 10 (1953); Totten v. United States, 92 U. S. 105, 106 (1876). The authority to protect such information falls on the President as head of the Executive Branch and as Commander in Chief.

Congress does not create Exective Branch agencies superior to the President which set down rules the President must follow. His authority flows from the Constitution, not a grant from the Congress or an agency created by the Congress.

If the Congress desires to amend the Constitution, they must propose an amendment and get it ratified.

Classification and declassification are controlled by Executive Orders. The President is not constrainted by Executive Orders. He can always abolish all existing executive orders. He does not need the approval of anyone to do so.

All delegated power or authority to classify or declassify derives from the constitutional executive power vested by the people in the President alone. His agents and subordinates only wield authority delegated down from him. Nobody in the executive branch under the President is empowered by the Constitution or Congress to establish hoops which the President must jump through in order to wield his constitutionally provided executive power. In their infinite wisdom, the people vested all the executive power of the federal government in one person, the President.

98 posted on 08/12/2022 9:36:03 PM PDT by woodpusher
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 34 | View Replies]

To: the OlLine Rebel
Any more than I could take home classified things I had possessed but am no longer employed.

So you were POTUS?

99 posted on 08/12/2022 9:39:36 PM PDT by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 25 | View Replies]

To: roving; All

You will notice all the DeSantis lovers are liking this Fed hit job on Trump.....


100 posted on 08/12/2022 9:40:42 PM PDT by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 29 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 41-6061-8081-100101-116 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson