Case 8 19-cv-00985-GJH Document 1 Filed 04 02 19 Page 1 of 42 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT DISTRICT OF MARYLAND TIMOTHY H EDGAR Providence RI RICHARD H IMMERMAN 700 Locust Street Philadelphia PA 19106 Civil Action No __________ MELVIN A GOODMAN 5002 Nahant Street Bethesda Montgomery County MD 20816 ANURADHA BHAGWATI New York NY MARK FALLON Brunswick Georgia Plaintiffs v DANIEL COATS in his official capacity as Director of National Intelligence Office of the Director of National Intelligence Washington DC 20511 GINA HASPEL in her official capacity as Director of the Central Intelligence Agency Central Intelligence Agency Washington DC 20505 continued on next page In a concurrently filed motion Plaintiffs Timothy H Edgar Anuradha Bhagwati and Mark Fallon have requested a waiver of their obligations under Local Rule 102 2 a to provide their home addresses in the caption of this complaint 1 Case 8 19-cv-00985-GJH Document 1 Filed 04 02 19 Page 2 of 42 PATRICK M SHANAHAN in his official capacity as Acting Secretary of Defense Department of Defense 1400 Defense Pentagon Washington DC 20301 PAUL M NAKASONE in his official capacity as Director of the National Security Agency National Security Agency 9800 Savage Road Fort Meade MD 20755 Defendants COMPLAINT FOR DECLARATORY AND INJUNCTIVE RELIEF 1 This is a challenge to a far-reaching system of prior restraints that suppresses a broad swath of constitutionally protected speech including core political speech by former government employees The system known as “prepublication review ” exposes millions of former intelligence-agency employees and military personnel to possible sanction if they write or speak about their government service without first obtaining the government’s approval Under this system government officials review and censor tens of thousands of submissions every year 2 As prominent legal scholars have noted and as the government’s own documents confirm the system is “racked with pathologies ” Jack Goldsmith Oona Hathaway The Government’s System of Prepublication Review Is Broken Wash Post Dec 25 2015 https perma cc 2JST-ZJ52 Many agencies impose prepublication review obligations on former employees without regard to their level of access to sensitive information Submission requirements and review standards are vague overbroad and leave former employees uncertain or unaware of their obligations Manuscript review frequently takes weeks or even months Agencies’ censorial decisions are often arbitrary unexplained and influenced by authors’ 2 Case 8 19-cv-00985-GJH Document 1 Filed 04 02 19 Page 3 of 42 viewpoints And favored officials are sometimes afforded special treatment with their manuscripts fast-tracked and reviewed more sympathetically As a result of the system’s dysfunction many would-be authors self-censor and the public is denied access to speech by former government employees that has singular potential to inform public debate about government policy 3 This system of censorship cannot be squared with the First Amendment The government has a legitimate interest in protecting bona fide national-security secrets and several statutes impose after-the-fact criminal penalties on those who disclose classified information unlawfully But the imposition of a prior restraint is an extreme measure—one that can be justified only in truly extraordinary circumstances and even then only when the restraint is closely tailored to a compelling government interest and accompanied by procedural safeguards designed to avoid the dangers of a censorship system To survive First Amendment scrutiny a requirement of prepublication review would have to at a minimum apply only to those entrusted with the most closely held government secrets apply only to material reasonably likely to contain those secrets provide clear notice of what must be submitted and what standards will be applied tightly cabin the discretion of government censors include strict and definite time limits for completion of review require censors to explain their decisions and assure that those decisions are subject to prompt review by the courts The prepublication review system in its current form has none of these features 4 Plaintiffs Timothy H Edgar Richard H Immerman Melvin A Goodman Anuradha Bhagwati and Mark Fallon are former employees of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence the Central Intelligence Agency and the Department of Defense Between them they served in the intelligence community and the military in a diversity of roles for almost 3 Case 8 19-cv-00985-GJH Document 1 Filed 04 02 19 Page 4 of 42 a century All of them have drafted publications subject to prepublication review Most of them have submitted written works for review in the past All of them intend to continue writing works subject to review And without the intervention of this Court all of them will be forced to choose between submitting material to an unconstitutional censorship regime and risking sanction in the future They seek a declaration that Defendants’ prepublication review regimes are unconstitutional and an injunction against the application of these regimes to them Jurisdiction and Venue 5 This action arises under the First and Fifth Amendments to the U S Constitution 6 This Court has subject matter jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U S C § 1331 over causes of action arising under the U S Constitution The Court has authority to grant declaratory and injunctive relief under the Declaratory Judgment Act 28 U S C §§ 2201–2202 and under the Court’s inherent equitable jurisdiction 7 Venue is proper in this district pursuant to 28 U S C § 1391 because one Plaintiff resides in this judicial district and Defendants are officers of the United States sued in their official capacities Parties 8 Timothy H Edgar is an expert on cybersecurity and a former employee of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence “ODNI” He resides in Rhode Island He has submitted written work to the ODNI in the past and at least some of his manuscripts have been referred to the Central Intelligence Agency “CIA” and the National Security Agency “NSA” for additional review 9 Richard H Immerman is a historian with expertise in U S foreign relations and a former employee of the ODNI He resides in Pennsylvania He has submitted written work to the 4 Case 8 19-cv-00985-GJH Document 1 Filed 04 02 19 Page 5 of 42 ODNI in the past and at least one of his manuscripts has been referred to the CIA for additional review 10 Melvin A Goodman is an expert on the former Soviet Union and a former employee of the CIA He resides in Maryland He has submitted written work to the CIA in the past and at least one of his manuscripts has been referred to the Department of Defense “DOD” for additional review 11 Anuradha Bhagwati is a writer activist and Marine Corps veteran who founded SWAN the Service Women’s Action Network an organization that raises awareness of and conducts advocacy on issues of sexual violence in the military and gender equality in the armed services She resides in New York She was not made aware of her prepublication review obligation until recently and she has not submitted written work to the DOD in the past 12 Mark Fallon is an expert on counterterrorism counterintelligence and interrogation and a former employee of the Naval Criminal Investigative Service He resides in Georgia He has submitted written work to the DOD in the past and at least two of his manuscripts have been referred to other DOD components and agencies outside of the DOD for additional review 13 Defendant Daniel Coats is the Director of National Intelligence He has ultimate authority over the ODNI’s prepublication review regime He is sued in his official capacity 14 Defendant Gina Haspel is the Director of the CIA She has ultimate authority over the CIA’s prepublication review regime She is sued in her official capacity 15 Defendant Patrick M Shanahan is the Acting Secretary of Defense He has ultimate authority over the DOD’s prepublication review regime He is sued in his official capacity 5 Case 8 19-cv-00985-GJH Document 1 Filed 04 02 19 Page 6 of 42 16 Defendant Paul M Nakasone is the Director of the NSA which is a component of the DOD He has authority over the NSA’s prepublication review regime He is sued in his official capacity Facts Origins and Metastasis of the Prepublication Review System 17 Since its establishment in 1947 the CIA has required employees to sign secrecy agreements as a condition of employment and again upon their resignation from the agency Although the terms of these agreements have varied over time the agreements have generally prohibited CIA employees from publishing manuscripts without first obtaining the agency’s consent 18 In the 1950s and 1960s when comparatively few former CIA employees sought to publish manuscripts the agency handled prepublication review informally through its Office of Security and Office of General Counsel In the 1970s however partly as a result of the Vietnam War and the executive-branch abuses of power exposed and documented by the Church and Pike Committees many more former agency employees began writing often critically about the agency and its activities In 1976 in the wake of a Fourth Circuit ruling that allowed the CIA to enforce a prepublication review agreement against a former employee named Victor Marchetti CIA Director George H W Bush established the Publications Review Board to review the non-official publications of current employees The next year when Stansfield Turner succeeded Bush as CIA Director Turner expanded the Board’s authority to reach publications by former employees 19 The 1980s were a critical period in the evolution of prepublication review In 1980 a divided Supreme Court decided Snepp v United States 444 U S 507 1980 affirming the imposition of a constructive trust on proceeds earned by a former CIA officer who had 6 Case 8 19-cv-00985-GJH Document 1 Filed 04 02 19 Page 7 of 42 published a book without submitting it for review The ruling—unsigned and issued without the benefit of oral argument or even briefing on the merits—was widely criticized by prominent voices across the political spectrum 20 Emboldened by Snepp in 1983 President Reagan issued National Security Decision Directive 84 “Directive 84” which mandated that intelligence agencies require all persons authorized to access Sensitive Compartmented Information “SCI” to sign a nondisclosure agreement as a condition of access The directive provided that “ a ll such agreements must include a provision for prepublication review to assure deletion of SCI and other classified information ” In a 1983 report the General Accounting Office estimated that the provision would affect approximately 128 000 people—in addition to an undisclosed number of CIA and NSA employees 21 Directive 84 provoked an intense and bipartisan backlash in Congress In October 1983 Senator Charles Mathias Republican of Maryland proposed a rider on a State Department appropriations measure to delay the implementation of the directive’s prepublication review provision Mathias told the Senate “We must insure that the free speech rights of our most experienced public servants are not restricted unnecessarily C ongressional consideration must precede the implementation of the censorship plan ” The House and Senate agreed voting to approve the rider in November Two months later Representative Jack Brooks Democrat of Texas introduced legislation to prohibit most agencies from imposing prepublication review requirements The bill was referred to the House Committee on Post Office and Civil Service and subcommittee hearings were held in February However on March 20 1984 one day before the bill’s formal consideration by the full committee President Reagan suspended Directive 84’s prepublication review mandate As a result Brooks’s bill was removed from the full committee’s 7 Case 8 19-cv-00985-GJH Document 1 Filed 04 02 19 Page 8 of 42 schedule As a 1988 report of the House Committee on Government Operations chaired by Brooks noted “It appeared as if there would be no need for legislation prohibiting prepublication review contracts because the Administration had decided not to implement that policy ” 22 President Reagan’s suspension of the prepublication review mandate did not however suspend agencies’ existing prepublication review requirements or prohibit the agencies from imposing new ones The agencies continued to require employees to sign Form 4193 a standard-form contract that the Reagan administration had introduced in 1981 without informing Congress and that imposed essentially the same prepublication review obligations that Directive 84 would have imposed A General Accounting Office survey found that at the end of 1985 at least 240 776 individuals had signed SCI nondisclosure agreements with prepublication review requirements and an updated survey from 1988 found that about 450 000 current and former employees had signed such agreements Neither survey included employees current or former of the CIA or the NSA 23 Over the past five decades the prepublication review system has expanded on every axis 24 First more agencies impose prepublication review requirements on their former employees When the Supreme Court decided Snepp the only U S intelligence agencies that imposed prepublication review obligations on former employees were the CIA and the NSA Today every U S intelligence agency imposes a lifetime prepublication review requirement on at least some subset of former employees 25 Second these agencies impose prepublication review obligations on more categories of people Most agencies once imposed lifetime prepublication review obligations 8 Case 8 19-cv-00985-GJH Document 1 Filed 04 02 19 Page 9 of 42 only on individuals with access to SCI and the number of employees with SCI was “a very small fraction of Government employees who had access to classified information generally ” as Deputy Assistant Attorney General Richard K Willard testified in 1983 Now however many agencies impose such obligations even on employees who have never had access to SCI or to classified information of any kind Whereas the DOD for example once imposed lifetime prepublication review obligations only on employees with access to SCI—111 167 people in 1983—it now imposes these obligations on all 2 9 million of its employees including civilian employees active duty military personnel and reservists 26 Third the amount of information that is classified has expanded dramatically In 1980 the year Snepp was decided original and derivative classification authorities made 16 million classification decisions In 2017 they made 49 5 million The increase in the number of classified secrets has meant a corresponding expansion in the reach of prepublication review regimes—an expansion that is of especial concern because as is widely acknowledged a substantial fraction of classified secrets is classified improperly or unnecessarily 27 Fourth agency prepublication review regimes have become increasingly complex The CIA prepublication review obligations that the Supreme Court considered in Snepp were purely contractual Today the intelligence agencies impose prepublication review requirements through a confusing tangle of contracts regulations and policies Moreover the basic features of prepublication review—including submission and review standards review timelines and appeals processes—vary widely across agencies which further complicates the process for former employees who must submit to more than one agency and also for those who submit to only one agency but are told as they very often are that their manuscript has been referred to other agencies for additional review Against this background former employees frequently have 9 Case 8 19-cv-00985-GJH Document 1 Filed 04 02 19 Page 10 of 42 difficulty determining what their submission obligations are and what standards will be applied to their manuscripts 28 Fifth the amount of material being submitted for prepublication review has steadily increased For example in 1977 the CIA received 43 submissions for prepublication review In 2015 by contrast the agency received more than 8 400 submissions for prepublication review including about 3 400 manuscripts according to a draft report of the CIA Inspector General obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union “ACLU” and the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University “Knight Institute” under the Freedom of Information Act “FOIA” Another document released under FOIA indicates that the number of pages reviewed by the CIA each year increased from about 1 000 in the mid-1970s to 150 000 in 2014 Other agencies have seen similarly dramatic increases Figure 1 Graph from CIA Inspector General report produced to the ACLU and the Knight Institute in FOIA litigation 10 Case 8 19-cv-00985-GJH Document 1 Filed 04 02 19 Page 11 of 42 29 Finally in part because so much more material is submitted to them agencies now take much more time to complete their reviews In a 1983 congressional hearing then– Chairman of the CIA’s Publications Review Board Charles Wilson testified that the CIA’s 30day time limit for completion of reviews was “met in virtually all cases but a very few ” and that the average review took just 13 days Review takes much longer today perhaps because staffing has not kept pace with the sharp increase in submissions According to the draft CIA IG report cited above “ w ith today’s volumes complexity and drive for immediacy the Publications Review Board is struggling with achieving timeliness and to some extent thoroughness quality ” The report states “ B ook-length manuscripts received today are currently projected to take over a year because of the complexity and large book backlog ” 30 In part because of the expansion described above and in part because of factors described more fully below the prepublication review system has become dysfunctional Recognizing this in 2017 the House and Senate Intelligence Committees instructed the DNI to prepare within 180 days of enactment of the Intelligence Authorization Act for that year a new prepublication review policy that would apply to all intelligence agencies and that would “yield timely reasoned and impartial decisions that are subject to appeal ” The new policy the committees said should require each intelligence agency to develop and maintain a prepublication review policy that identifies the individuals whose work is subject to prepublication review provides guidance on the types of information that must be submitted for review provides for a “prompt and transparent” appeals process includes guidelines for the assertion of “interagency equities ” and summarizes the measures the agency may take to enforce its policy Twenty-three months have passed however and the DNI has not published or formulated such a policy 11 Case 8 19-cv-00985-GJH Document 1 Filed 04 02 19 Page 12 of 42 Defendants’ Prepublication Review Regimes 31 Defendants’ prepublication review regimes differ in their particulars but each of them restrains far more speech than can be justified by any legitimate government interest CIA 32 The CIA imposes overlapping submission requirements that taken together are vague confusing and overbroad a Through Standard Form 312 “Classified Information Nondisclosure Agreement ” the CIA requires all agency employees with access to classified information who are “uncertain about the classification status of information” to “confirm from an authorized official that the information is unclassified before they may disclose it ” See Standard Form 312 § 3 b Through Form 4414 “Sensitive Compartmented Information Nondisclosure Agreement ” the CIA requires all agency employees with access to SCI to submit for prepublication review “any writing or other preparation in any form including a work of fiction that contains or purports to contain any SCI or description of activities that produce or relate to SCI or that the author has reason to believe are derived from SCI ” See Form 4414 § 4 c Through the standard CIA secrecy agreement—a document that has not been released publicly but that is summarized on the CIA’s website—the agency requires all CIA officers as a condition of employment to submit for prepublication review “any and all materials they intend to share with the public that are intelligence related ” d Finally through Agency Regulation “AR” 13-10 “Agency Prepublication Review of Certain Material Prepared for Public Dissemination ” the CIA requires 12 Case 8 19-cv-00985-GJH Document 1 Filed 04 02 19 Page 13 of 42 all “former Agency employees and contractors and others who are obligated by CIA secrecy agreement ” to submit for prepublication review any material “that mentions CIA or intelligence data or activities or material on any subject about which the author has had access to classified information in the course of his employment or other contact with the Agency ” See AR 13-10 § 2 b 1 e 1 e A document provided by the CIA to the ACLU and the Knight Institute in FOIA litigation states that the agency “will not provide a copy of a secrecy agreement or nondisclosure agreement to an author who requests one they signed ” even though such agreements “are typically not classified ” 33 The CIA’s prepublication review regime fails to meaningfully cabin the discretion of the agency’s censor the Publications Review Board Collectively Standard Form 312 Form 4414 the CIA secrecy agreement and AR 13-10 give the Board discretion to censor information that it claims is classified without regard to for example whether disclosure of the information would actually cause harm to the nation’s security whether the former employee acquired the information in question in the course of employment whether the information is already in the public domain and whether any legitimate interest in secrecy is outweighed by the public interest in disclosure In addition when the Board refers manuscripts to other agencies for review other agencies censor manuscripts submitted by former CIA employees on the basis of review standards that are not disclosed See SF-312 § 3 Form 4414 §§ 4–5 AR 13-10 § 2 c 1 f 2 34 The breadth and vagueness of the CIA’s review standards invite capricious and discriminatory enforcement and in practice the Board’s censorship decisions are often arbitrary or influenced by the author’s viewpoint For example former intelligence-community employees 13 Case 8 19-cv-00985-GJH Document 1 Filed 04 02 19 Page 14 of 42 who wrote books criticizing the CIA’s torture of prisoners apprehended in the “war on terror” have complained publicly that their books were heavily redacted even as former CIA officials’ supportive accounts of the same policies were published without significant excisions of similar information In 2012 the CIA opened an internal investigation into whether the agency’s prepublication review regime was being misused to suppress speech critical of the agency According to the Washington Post the investigation was sparked by “growing concern in the intelligence community that the review process is biased toward agency loyalists particularly those from the executive ranks ” The CIA has not released or publicly described the investigation’s findings 35 The CIA’s prepublication review regime does not require the Publications Review Board to provide authors with reasons for its decisions even in unclassified form and on information and belief the Board generally does not do so 36 The CIA’s prepublication review regime fails to assure prompt agency review To the extent that the regime provides deadlines for review or the adjudication of appeals these deadlines are merely aspirational As noted above the CIA itself estimates that review of booklength manuscripts will take a year—a duration of time that dissuades would-be authors from setting pen to paper and dissuades would-be publishers from signing book contracts with former agency employees In some cases review has taken considerably longer than one year For example a manuscript by former CIA analyst Nada Bakos was reportedly under review for almost twice that time 37 The CIA’s prepublication review regime also fails to require the government to initiate judicial review of censors’ decisions and fails to guarantee that review is prompt 14 Case 8 19-cv-00985-GJH Document 1 Filed 04 02 19 Page 15 of 42 DOD 38 The DOD imposes overlapping submission requirements that taken together are vague confusing and overbroad a As a prerequisite to accessing classified information the DOD requires employees to sign Standard Form 312 which is described above b As a prerequisite to accessing SCI the DOD requires employees to sign Form 4414 which is described above DD Form 1847-1 “Sensitive Compartmented Information Nondisclosure Statement ” or both Like Form 4414 DD Form 1847-1 requires all agency employees with access to SCI to submit for prepublication review “any writing or other preparation in any form including a work of fiction that contains or purports to contain any SCI or description of activities that produce or relate to SCI or that the author has reason to believe are derived from SCI ” See DD Form 1847-1 § 4 c The DOD has also adopted Directive 5230 09 “Clearance of DoD Information for Public Release ” and Instruction 5230 29 “Security and Policy Review of DoD Information for Public Release ” which together require all former agency employees and all former active or reserve military service members to submit for prepublication review “any official DoD information intended for public release that pertains to military matters national security issues or subjects of significant concern to the agency ” The directive defines “official DoD information” to encompass “ a ll information that is in the custody and control of the Department of Defense relates to information in the custody and control of the Department or was acquired by DoD employees as part of their official duties or because of their official status within the Department ” Such information must be submitted for 15 Case 8 19-cv-00985-GJH Document 1 Filed 04 02 19 Page 16 of 42 review if for example it “ i s or has the potential to become an item of national or international interest” “ a ffects national security policy foreign relations or ongoing negotiations” or “ c oncerns a subject of potential controversy among the DoD Components or with other federal agencies ” See Directive 5230 09 § 4 b id Glossary pt II Instruction 5230 29 § 3 id Enclosure 3 § 1 As a “Frequently Asked Questions” document issued by the DOD emphasizes “ a ll current former and retired DoD employees and military service members whether active or reserve who have had access to DoD information or facilities must submit DoD information intended for public release for review and clearance ” 39 The DOD’s prepublication review regime fails to meaningfully cabin the discretion of the agency’s review board the Defense Office of Prepublication and Security Review Collectively Standard Form 312 Form 4414 DD Form 1847-1 and the DOD’s directive and instruction give the DOD’s review board discretion to censor information without regard to for example whether the information is classified whether disclosure of the information would actually cause harm to the nation’s security whether the former employee acquired the information in question in the course of employment whether the information is already in the public domain and whether any legitimate interest in secrecy is outweighed by the public interest in disclosure For example the DOD’s directive and instruction seem to contemplate that submissions from former employees may be subject to both “security review” intended to “protect classified information controlled unclassified information or unclassified information that may individually or in aggregate lead to the compromise of classified information or disclosure of operations security” and “policy review” which seeks to “ensure 16 Case 8 19-cv-00985-GJH Document 1 Filed 04 02 19 Page 17 of 42 that no conflict exists with established policies or programs of the DoD or the U S Government” In addition when the DOD’s review board refers manuscripts to other agencies for review other agencies censor manuscripts submitted by former DOD employees on the basis of standards that are not disclosed See SF-312 § 3 Form 4414 §§ 4–5 DD Form 1847-1 §§ 4–5 Instruction 5230 29 § 3 id Enclosure 3 § 1 40 The breadth and vagueness of the DOD’s review standards mean that the DOD review board’s decisions are frequently arbitrary and that the DOD and DOD components often disagree as to what must be censored For example when former reserve Army officer Anthony Shaffer submitted his memoir for review the Army reviewed the manuscript and cleared it with modest changes Several months later however the Defense Intelligence Agency saw a copy showed it to the NSA and other agencies and decided that some 250 passages had to be redacted Redactions included information that was readily available on Wikipedia as well as other publicly available information such as the name and abbreviation of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps and the fact that “sig int” means “signals intelligence ” 41 The DOD’s prepublication review regime does not require the DOD’s review board to provide authors with reasons for its decisions even in unclassified form and on information and belief the review board generally does not do so 42 The DOD’s prepublication review regime fails to assure prompt agency review To the extent that the regime provides deadlines for review or the adjudication of appeals these deadlines are merely aspirational As documents produced to the ACLU and the Knight Institute in FOIA litigation show the DOD’s prepublication review process frequently takes many weeks or even months See Instruction 5230 29 Enclosure 3 §§ 3 a 4 b For example in 2014 former ODNI and Defense Intelligence Agency officer Michael Richter lodged an administrative appeal 17 Case 8 19-cv-00985-GJH Document 1 Filed 04 02 19 Page 18 of 42 with the DOD that took over seven months to adjudicate This despite the fact that the appeal “require d analysis of one sentence in one paragraph citing one document”—and the author’s insistence that he had “only learned of the excised information by virtue of having access to the New York Times website ” 43 The DOD’s prepublication review regime also fails to require the government to initiate judicial review of censors’ decisions and fails to guarantee that review is prompt NSA 44 The NSA imposes overlapping submission requirements that taken together are vague confusing and overbroad a As a prerequisite to accessing classified information the NSA requires employees to sign Standard Form 312 which is described above b As a prerequisite to accessing SCI the NSA requires employees to sign Form 4414 which is described above c The NSA has also adopted NSA CSS Policy 1-30 “Review of NSA CSS Information Intended for Public Release ” which requires all former NSA employees to submit for prepublication review any material other than a resume or other job-related document “where it contains official NSA CSS information that may or may not be UNCLASSIFIED and approved for public release ” “Official NSA CSS information” is defined to include “ a ny NSA CSS DoD or IC information that is in the custody and control of NSA CSS and was obtained for or generated on NSA CSS’ behalf during the course of employment or other service whether contractual or not with NSA CSS ” While the policy does not define “approved for public release ” it seems to contemplate that information 18 Case 8 19-cv-00985-GJH Document 1 Filed 04 02 19 Page 19 of 42 may be unclassified but not approved for release See NSA CSS Policy 1-30 §§ 2 6 b 29 45 The NSA’s prepublication review regime fails to meaningfully cabin the discretion of the agency’s censors known as Prepublication Review Authorities Indeed the NSA’s policy does not directly address what information may be censored Collectively Standard Form 312 Form 4414 and the NSA’s policy give reviewing officials discretion to censor information without regard to for example whether the information is classified whether disclosure of the information would actually cause harm to the nation’s security whether the former employee acquired the information in question in the course of employment whether the information is already in the public domain and whether any legitimate interest in secrecy is outweighed by the public interest in disclosure In addition when the NSA refers manuscripts to other agencies for review other agencies censor manuscripts submitted by former NSA employees on the basis of standards that are not disclosed See SF-312 § 3 Form 4414 §§ 4–5 NSA CSS Policy 1-30 § 12 e 46 In part because of the breadth and the vagueness of the NSA’s review standards the censorship decisions of reviewing officials are often arbitrary For example in 2017 former NSA employee and contractor Thomas Reed Willemain published a memoir “motivated in part by a hope that he could counter the intensely negative views of the NSA in the media and popular fiction ” According to a blogpost that Willemain wrote for a national-security website NSA censors made redactions that “sometimes border ed on the ridiculous ” excising facts that were publicly available including facts that were “obvious and apparent ” In one instance they redacted a fact that the agency had previously declassified in a court filing 19 Case 8 19-cv-00985-GJH Document 1 Filed 04 02 19 Page 20 of 42 47 The NSA’s prepublication review regime does not require reviewing officials to provide authors with reasons for their decisions at first instance even in unclassified form and on information and belief reviewing officials generally do not do so 48 The NSA’s prepublication review regime provides no assurance of prompt agency review Although the regime provides a firm deadline for adjudication of appeals it does not include one for initial determinations As documents produced to the ACLU and the Knight Institute in FOIA litigation show review frequently takes many weeks or even months 49 The NSA’s prepublication review regime also fails to require the government to initiate judicial review of censors’ decisions and fails to guarantee that review is prompt ODNI 50 The ODNI imposes overlapping submission requirements that taken together are vague confusing and overbroad a As a prerequisite to accessing classified information the ODNI requires employees to sign Standard Form 312 which is described above b As a prerequisite to accessing SCI the ODNI requires employees to sign Form 4414 which is described above c As a prerequisite to accessing information or material “that is classified or is in the process of a classification determination ” the ODNI requires employees to sign Form 313 “Nondisclosure Agreement for Classified Information ” which directs them to submit for prepublication review “any writing or other preparation in any form” which “contains any mention of intelligence data or activities or which contains any other information or material that might be based upon information or material that is classified or is in the process of a classification 20 Case 8 19-cv-00985-GJH Document 1 Filed 04 02 19 Page 21 of 42 determination and that was obtained pursuant to the agreement ” See Form 313 §§ 3 5 d The ODNI has also adopted Instruction 80 04 “ODNI Pre-publication Review of Information to be Publicly Released ” which requires all former agency employees regardless of their level of access to sensitive information to submit “all official and non-official information intended for publication that discusses the ODNI the IC Intelligence Community or national security ” See ODNI Instruction 80 04 § 6 51 The ODNI’s prepublication review regime fails to meaningfully cabin the discretion of the agency’s censor the Director of the Information Management Division Collectively Standard Form 312 Form 4414 Form 313 and the ODNI’s instruction give the Director discretion to censor information without regard to for example whether the information is classified whether disclosure of the information would actually cause harm to the nation’s security whether the former employee acquired the information in question in the course of employment whether the information is already in the public domain and whether any legitimate interest in secrecy is outweighed by the public interest in disclosure Indeed the ODNI’s instruction imposes no limitations whatsoever on the Director’s power to censor It states only that “the goal of pre-publication review is to prevent the unauthorized disclosure of information and to ensure the ODNI’s mission and the foreign relations or security of the U S are not adversely affected by publication ” In addition when the Director refers manuscripts to other agencies for review other agencies censor manuscripts submitted by former ODNI employees on the basis of standards that are not disclosed See SF-312 § 3 Form 4414 §§ 4–5 ODNI Instruction 80 04 § 3 21 Case 8 19-cv-00985-GJH Document 1 Filed 04 02 19 Page 22 of 42 52 The breadth and vagueness of the ODNI’s review standards invite capricious and discriminatory enforcement 53 The ODNI’s prepublication review regime does not require the Director of the Information Management Division to provide reasons for his or her decisions and on information and belief the Director generally does not do so 54 The ODNI’s prepublication review regime provides no assurance of prompt agency review To the extent that the regime provides deadlines for review or the adjudication of appeals these deadlines are merely aspirational As documents produced to the ACLU and the Knight Institute in FOIA litigation show review frequently takes many weeks or even months 55 The ODNI’s prepublication review regime also fails to require the government to initiate judicial review of censors’ decisions and fails to guarantee that review is prompt Plaintiffs Timothy H Edgar 56 Timothy H Edgar a resident of Rhode Island is an expert on cybersecurity and a former employee of the ODNI He is currently a Senior Fellow at the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs and Academic Director of the Executive Master’s Program in Cybersecurity at Brown University 57 Earlier in his career Mr Edgar was a visiting fellow at the Watson Institute from 2013 to 2015 a fellow and adjunct lecturer at Boston University from 2014 to 2015 and an adjunct professor at Georgetown University Law Center from 2012 to 2013 Prior to his government service he was National Security Policy Counsel at the American Civil Liberties Union from 2001 to 2006 He received a B A in History from Dartmouth College and a J D from Harvard Law School 22 Case 8 19-cv-00985-GJH Document 1 Filed 04 02 19 Page 23 of 42 58 Mr Edgar was an employee of the ODNI from 2006 to 2013 From June 2006 to August 2009 he served in the newly created position of Deputy for Civil Liberties supporting the Director of National Intelligence by reviewing new surveillance authorities government watchlists and sensitive programs From August 2009 to November 2010 he was detailed to the White House National Security Staff as Director of Privacy and Civil Liberties focusing on cybersecurity open government and data privacy initiatives From November 2010 to December 2012 he was a Senior Associate General Counsel at the ODNI He formally resigned from the agency in June 2013 59 Mr Edgar obtained a Top Secret Sensitive Compartmented Information “TS SCI” security clearance in 2006 He signed a nondisclosure agreement with the ODNI in order to obtain this security clearance He held his TS SCI clearance continuously until June 2013 60 As an employee of the ODNI Mr Edgar submitted for review official material prepared for public appearances that he made on behalf of the government He also submitted syllabi for courses that he taught in his personal capacity at Brown University in 2013 and Georgetown University Law Center in 2012 61 Since leaving the ODNI Mr Edgar has submitted to the ODNI blog posts and op- eds that have appeared in major publications including the Guardian the Los Angeles Times the Wall Street Journal and the Lawfare national-security blog where he is a contributing editor 62 On October 10 2016 Mr Edgar submitted via e-mail to the ODNI’s prepublication review office a manuscript for the book Beyond Snowden Privacy Mass Surveillance and the Struggle to Reform the NSA Although some portions of the manuscript 23 Case 8 19-cv-00985-GJH Document 1 Filed 04 02 19 Page 24 of 42 were based on his personal experiences Mr Edgar relied on and cited in the manuscript declassified documents for pertinent details 63 After Mr Edgar submitted the manuscript the ODNI informed him that it had referred the manuscript to both the CIA and the NSA for additional review Despite multiple inquiries he was unable to communicate directly with reviewing officials at the CIA and the NSA 64 On January 12 2017 the ODNI informed Mr Edgar that he could publish the manuscript only if he redacted or excised certain material Some of the redactions related to events that had taken place or issues that had arisen after Mr Edgar had left government Others related to facts that were widely discussed and acknowledged though perhaps not officially confirmed Although he disagreed with some of the mandated redactions Mr Edgar decided against challenging them because partly as a result of the three-month review he had already pushed back his publication date from the spring to the fall and he worried that pushing the publication date back further would make some of the analysis and insights in his book outdated or less relevant to ongoing public debates In addition because he believed that maintaining a good relationship with reviewers at the ODNI was important to getting future manuscripts cleared in a timely fashion he believed it would be counterproductive to challenge requested edits or redactions because doing so could harm that relationship 65 Mr Edgar plans to continue writing about matters relating to intelligence and cybersecurity and he anticipates submitting at least some of this writing to the ODNI for prepublication review Given the subjects he writes about Mr Edgar expects that any manuscripts he submits to the ODNI for review may also be referred to the NSA the CIA or other agencies as happened with his now-published book 24 Case 8 19-cv-00985-GJH Document 1 Filed 04 02 19 Page 25 of 42 66 Mr Edgar believes that the ODNI’s current prepublication review regime requires him to submit far more than he should be required to submit He finds the ODNI’s submission requirements to be vague and confusing and as a result he is uncertain as to the exact scope of his submission obligations He also fears that the delay associated with prepublication review including interagency referrals will hinder his career as an academic and impede his ability to participate effectively in public debate on matters involving his areas of expertise The delay and uncertainty associated with prepublication review has dissuaded him from writing some pieces that he would otherwise have written and has caused him to write others differently than he would otherwise have written them Based on his knowledge of other former employees’ experiences with prepublication review and his understanding of the broad discretion that the prepublication review system invests in government censors he believes that the ODNI the CIA and the NSA might have taken longer to review his book if they had perceived the book to be unsympathetic to the intelligence community He is concerned that government censors will be less responsive to him if he writes books that are perceived to be critical Richard H Immerman 67 Richard H Immerman a resident of Pennsylvania is a historian with expertise in U S foreign relations and a former employee of the ODNI He was a professor of history at Temple University for over two decades before he retired in 2017 He is now Professor of History Emeritus Edward J Buthusiem Family Distinguished Faculty Fellow in History Emeritus and Marvin Wachman Director Emeritus of the Center for the Study of Force and Diplomacy 68 Earlier in his career Professor Immerman was the Francis W DeSerio Chair of Strategic Intelligence Department of National Security and Strategy at the U S Army War College He was also the 40th President of the Society for Historians of American Foreign 25 Case 8 19-cv-00985-GJH Document 1 Filed 04 02 19 Page 26 of 42 Relations He has published twelve books on U S foreign policy intelligence and national security as well as dozens of book chapters and academic articles He received a B A in Government from Cornell University an M A in U S History from Boston College and a Ph D in U S Diplomatic History from Boston College 69 Professor Immerman joined the ODNI on a temporary sabbatical from his faculty position at Temple University From 2007 to 2009 he served as the Assistant Deputy Director of National Intelligence Analytic Integrity and Standards in which capacity he was responsible for establishing mechanisms to improve analytic integrity and standards across the intelligence community During the same period he served as the Analytic Ombudsman for the ODNI working with analysts on a confidential basis to raise concerns about the production of finished intelligence products His chief priorities were to address allegations of politicization and or the suppression of dissent 70 Shortly after returning to Temple University in 2009 Professor Immerman accepted an invitation to serve on the Department of State’s Advisory Committee on Historical Diplomatic Documentation often referred to as the Historical Advisory Committee or “HAC” In 2010 he became chairman of the HAC a position he continues to hold The HAC’s primary responsibility is overseeing publication of the Foreign Relations of the United States book series 71 Professor Immerman obtained a TS SCI security clearance through the ODNI in 2007 He signed a nondisclosure agreement with the ODNI in order to obtain this security clearance In 2011 or 2012 Professor Immerman signed a separate nondisclosure agreement with the CIA because of his ongoing responsibilities with the HAC 72 Since leaving the ODNI Professor Immerman has submitted to the ODNI book manuscripts articles papers public talks and academic syllabi 26 Case 8 19-cv-00985-GJH Document 1 Filed 04 02 19 Page 27 of 42 73 On January 25 2013 Professor Immerman submitted via e-mail to the ODNI’s prepublication review office a manuscript for the book The Hidden Hand A Brief History of the CIA The manuscript did not refer directly or indirectly to any classified information that Professor Immerman obtained in the course of his employment with the ODNI or the Department of State and Professor Immerman cited public sources for all factual propositions 74 The ODNI acknowledged receipt three days after Professor Immerman submitted the manuscript but it took almost three months before Professor Immerman was informed that the agency had referred part of his manuscript to the CIA for additional review Several weeks later the ODNI informed him that the CIA was reviewing the entire manuscript He contacted the CIA but personnel at that agency were unable to provide him with information about the status of the agency’s review or the contact information of any reviewing officials 75 On July 12 2013 nearly six months after Professor Immerman’s initial submission the ODNI informed Professor Immerman that he could publish his manuscript only with extensive redactions mandated by the CIA All of the mandated redactions related to information for which Professor Immerman had cited public sources Some redactions related to information that had been published previously by government agencies themselves including the CIA Many of them related to events that had taken place or issues that had arisen after Professor Immerman had left government In some instances the ODNI directed Professor Immerman to excise citations to newspaper articles that he had come across in the course of his research In other instances the ODNI directed Professor Immerman to delete entire passages relating to information that he had obtained from public sources For example the ODNI directed him to excise numerous portions of the manuscript relating to the CIA’s use of drones 27 Case 8 19-cv-00985-GJH Document 1 Filed 04 02 19 Page 28 of 42 The agency also instructed him to redact words communicating judgments and arguments that he considered fundamental to his conclusions as a trained historian 76 The ODNI did not provide Professor Immerman with any explanation for the CIA’s mandated redactions 77 Professor Immerman appealed the agency’s prepublication review determination to the ODNI’s Information Management Division Several weeks later that office informed him that he could publish a significant portion of the text that the prepublication review office had previously instructed him to redact 78 In September 2013 Professor Immerman arranged to meet with two reviewing officials from the CIA in person At this meeting the officials agreed with Professor Immerman that some of the redactions were unnecessary and they authorized him to publish additional text with revised wording but they reaffirmed their view that other redactions were necessary Although Professor Immerman disagreed he decided to publish The Hidden Hand with these remaining redactions to avoid further delay and his book was in fact published in 2014 In the end after his persistent challenges and communications with reviewing officials at the ODNI and the CIA Professor Immerman received approval to publish roughly eighty percent of the material that the agencies had originally redacted The process of prepublication review took ten months and would have taken longer if Professor Immerman had not ultimately decided to publish the manuscript rather than to continue to challenge redactions that he believed to be unjustified 79 Professor Immerman plans to continue publishing academic articles books and op-eds at least some of which will trigger prepublication review obligations under the ODNI’s current prepublication review regime For example Professor Immerman is in the process of 28 Case 8 19-cv-00985-GJH Document 1 Filed 04 02 19 Page 29 of 42 drafting an academic article about the influence of intelligence on the policy-making process He is also conducting research on the contribution of intelligence to negotiations on strategic arms limitation from the Nixon through Reagan administrations and intends to write a book on the subject He anticipates submitting these manuscripts for prepublication review 80 But for the dysfunction of the prepublication review system however Professor Immerman would publish more Professor Immerman believes that the ODNI’s prepublication review regime requires him to submit for review far more than he should be required to submit that the ODNI’s and the CIA’s arbitrary and unjustified redactions will diminish the value of any work that he does submit and that the time required for prepublication review will make it more difficult for him to contribute in a timely way to public debates He has considered writing academic articles using the research he has already conducted for his book and he has considered writing op-eds about the intelligence community and the current administration Concerns about the burdens and uncertainties associated with prepublication review however have dissuaded him from writing these pieces Melvin A Goodman 81 Melvin A Goodman a resident of Maryland is an expert on the former Soviet Union and its foreign policy in developing countries that were not aligned with either the Western Bloc or the Eastern Bloc during the Cold War He spent forty-two years in government service including as a division chief in the CIA and a professor of international security at the National War College Now semi-retired he teaches courses in international relations at Johns Hopkins University and writes books and opinion columns about international security Mr Goodman holds a B A in history from Johns Hopkins University an M A in history and a 29 Case 8 19-cv-00985-GJH Document 1 Filed 04 02 19 Page 30 of 42 Ph D in diplomatic history from Indiana University and an M A in military science from the National War College 82 Mr Goodman began his government career in 1955 as a cryptographer for the U S Army coding and deciphering sensitive messages From 1966 to 1990 he served in the CIA as an analyst senior analyst branch chief and division chief in the Directorate of Intelligence on Soviet Foreign Policy During that service from 1974 to 1976 he spent two years on detail at the Department of State The primary focus of his work was on Soviet foreign policy in non-aligned countries including in the Middle East Asia and Africa From 1986 to 2004 Mr Goodman was a professor at the National War College where he served as Director of the National Security Program 83 Mr Goodman held a TS SCI security clearance throughout his entire government career His clearance level never changed during his government service His clearance expired in 2006 two years after he retired from the National War College 84 When Mr Goodman joined the CIA in 1966 and first gained his security clearance he signed a secrecy agreement that contained a provision relating to prepublication review The provision required “specific prior approval by the Agency” of any “publication of any information or material relating to the Agency its activities or intelligence activities generally either during or after the term of his employment by the Agency ” 85 Since leaving the CIA Mr Goodman has submitted multiple works to the CIA for prepublication review 86 At times Mr Goodman has not submitted for review shorter pieces of writing such as op-ed articles that were time-sensitive and that he was confident did not contain classified information or other information that he had obtained during his employment with the 30 Case 8 19-cv-00985-GJH Document 1 Filed 04 02 19 Page 31 of 42 CIA On at least six occasions after publishing an op-ed Mr Goodman received letters from the CIA reminding him of his prepublication review obligations One such letter sent in 2009 threatened to refer the matter to the Department of Justice stating “The Agency is consulting with the Department of Justice to evaluate the legal remedies it has to ensure that you comply with your secrecy agreement ” 87 Mr Goodman has published nine books and has submitted each manuscript to the CIA for prepublication review The agency has referred one of these manuscripts to other agencies including the DOD and the Department of State for additional review He repeatedly asked the CIA for the contact information of the reviewers at these other agencies but the CIA declined to provide them to him These departments were even slower than the CIA in reviewing the manuscript 88 Generally the CIA has sent Mr Goodman’s manuscripts back to him in the mail with redactions edits and suggestions for alternative language Frequently Mr Goodman believed the CIA’s redactions were overbroad and unjustified He has often sent the agency “reclamas”—that is requests asking agency staff to reconsider their proposed redactions and edits—explaining the reasons why publication should be allowed Typically the agency has failed to respond to these reclamas 89 For most of Mr Goodman’s books the prepublication review process typically took less than two months In 2017 however the CIA took eleven months to review a manuscript of his latest book Whistleblower at the CIA In the manuscript Mr Goodman provided an account of his experience as a senior CIA analyst The lengthy review process caused significant difficulties with Mr Goodman’s publisher which at one point threatened to cancel his book contract in part because of the delays 31 Case 8 19-cv-00985-GJH Document 1 Filed 04 02 19 Page 32 of 42 90 Mr Goodman believes that all of the changes to Whistleblower at the CIA that the agency demanded were intended to spare the agency embarrassment not to protect classified information In various passages of the draft manuscript Mr Goodman discussed widely reported aspects of U S government policy including the government’s recent use of armed drones overseas Mr Goodman’s commentary was not based on personal knowledge of these activities—which Mr Goodman did and does not have as he has lacked access to CIA information since 1986—but was based on press accounts which he cited in his manuscript The agency demanded that he not discuss these matters in his manuscript at all The agency did not provide any written explanation for its demands 91 Because the excisions and changes to the manuscript demanded by the CIA were so substantial Mr Goodman decided not to file a reclama but rather to meet in person with the CIA’s censor His efforts to persuade the agency to reconsider its demands however were unsuccessful Mr Goodman reluctantly removed all of the passages that the censor had flagged 92 In a recently submitted manuscript Mr Goodman self-censored and avoided discussing certain public-source information about current CIA Director Gina Haspel Mr Goodman would have liked to discuss information about Ms Haspel that he learned as a member of the public not as a former agency employee However he chose not to include any such content in the manuscript in order to avoid conflict with and delays from the agency’s prepublication review office 93 Consistent with his practice in the past Mr Goodman intends to submit those portions of any future manuscripts that deal with intelligence matters He remains concerned that CIA censors will demand that he redact material unwarrantedly as it did with his last book and 32 Case 8 19-cv-00985-GJH Document 1 Filed 04 02 19 Page 33 of 42 that the delay associated with prepublication review will jeopardize his book contracts and render his publications less relevant to quickly evolving public debates Anuradha Bhagwati 94 Anuradha Bhagwati a resident of New York is a writer activist and former Marine Corps officer She is the founder of SWAN the Service Women’s Action Network a member-driven community advocacy network for service women She is also the founder of and an instructor at Yoga for Vets NYC the longest-running yoga and meditation program for military servicemembers and veterans in New York City She recently published Unbecoming A Memoir of Disobedience a memoir that centers on her confrontation of misogyny racism and sexual violence during her military service as well as her advocacy on related issues after leaving the Marines Ms Bhagwati received a B A in English from Yale University and an M P P from the Harvard University Kennedy School of Government She is currently pursuing an M F A in creative writing from Hunter College in New York City 95 After beginning graduate school Ms Bhagwati left academia and joined the Marine Corps in October 1999 Shortly after joining the Marines she attended officer training at Officer Candidates School in Quantico Virginia In 2001 she became a communications officer and from 2001 to 2002 Ms Bhagwati served as a platoon commander of a radio platoon in Okinawa Japan Between 2002 and 2004 she became an executive officer and company commander of a training company at Marine Combat Training Battalion School of Infantry East at Camp LeJeune North Carolina After leaving the Marines in 2004 Ms Bhagwati served in the Individual Ready Reserve for three years 96 Ms Bhagwati obtained a Secret security clearance after graduating from the Communications Information Systems Officer Course and getting assigned to her first unit as a platoon commander As a former DOD employee Ms Bhagwati is subject to the prepublication 33 Case 8 19-cv-00985-GJH Document 1 Filed 04 02 19 Page 34 of 42 review requirement imposed by Directive 5230 09 and Instruction 5230 29 Until recently Ms Bhagwati was not aware of that prepublication review obligation She learned of that obligation on the eve of the publication of her recent memoir through conversations with undersigned counsel 97 Ms Bhagwati is a frequent and vocal public advocate for the rights of servicemembers and veterans She has advocated on military issues on Capitol Hill testifying before Congress alongside high-ranking military officers and she has worked with DOD employees in relevant policy offices on issues of sexual assault and discrimination in the military She has published more than a dozen op-eds and opinion pieces about her experiences in the military and her military advocacy work in publications like the New York Times the Washington Post Politico and Foreign Affairs She has appeared on national television multiple times discussing issues related to her advocacy 98 In March 2019 Ms Bhagwati published Unbecoming A Memoir of Disobedience a chronicle of her time in the Marines that includes policy recommendations and advocacy based on her own experiences with misogyny racism and sexual violence in the military Like all of her published work and public advocacy the memoir was heavily influenced by her personal experiences as a servicewoman 99 Ms Bhagwati plans to continue her advocacy through written publications and public appearances She has no plans to submit any future work to prepublication review because she is certain that her future publications as with her prior ones will not contain classified information Nonetheless under the current regime the DOD might at any point choose to sanction her for failing to submit to prepublication review 34 Case 8 19-cv-00985-GJH Document 1 Filed 04 02 19 Page 35 of 42 Mark Fallon 100 Mark Fallon a resident of Georgia is an expert on counterterrorism counterintelligence and interrogation who has spent more than three decades in government service principally with the Naval Criminal Investigative Service “NCIS” After retiring from government service in 2010 he served as the Chair of the High-Value Detainee Interrogation Group “HIG” Research Committee between 2011 and 2016 He currently serves as a consultant for government agencies academic researchers lawyers and non-governmental organizations He holds a B S from Roger Williams College now Roger Williams University 101 Mr Fallon joined the NCIS in 1981 after having spent two years at the U S Marshals Service At the NCIS he worked on a broad array of criminal counterterrorism and counterintelligence investigations Over a period of 27 years he served in a number of field positions at the NCIS from street agent to Special Agent in Charge and served on numerous joint-service assignments and task forces After the attacks of September 11 2001 he served as the Deputy Commander and Special Agent in Charge of the Criminal Investigation Task Force to investigate alleged terrorists for trials before military commissions He also served as the Tactical Commander for the NCIS USS Cole Task Force which was responsible for investigating the attack on the USS Cole in Yemen as a special advisor to the Office of the Secretary of the Navy in the establishment of the Office for the Administrative Review of Detained Enemy Combatants and as a special advisor to U S Central Command Mr Fallon was the NCIS Deputy Assistant Director for counterterrorism from 2004 to 2005 when he became the NCIS Deputy Assistant Director for Training and Director of the NCIS Training Academy In 2008 he was appointed to the Senior Executive Service From 2008 to 2010 he served as the Assistant Director of the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center within the Department of Homeland Security 35 Case 8 19-cv-00985-GJH Document 1 Filed 04 02 19 Page 36 of 42 102 Mr Fallon obtained a Top Secret security clearance in 1981 upon joining the NCIS and held it continuously until departing the Department of Homeland Security in 2010 He obtained a TS SCI security clearance during his career at the NCIS He then obtained a TS SCI security clearance again in 2011 when beginning work for the HIG and in 2017 for consulting work he engages in with the U S government 103 Since he left government service Mr Fallon has published op-eds articles columns and a book He has submitted many of these to the DOD for prepublication review 104 In 2016 Mr Fallon completed a book Unjustifiable Means about the George W Bush administration’s policies relating to the interrogation and torture of prisoners and about the experience of public servants like him who had opposed the policies He believed his assessment of the torture policies and his account of his experience in government could help the public better evaluate proposals relating to interrogation and serve as a template for leadership training for other officials to make critical leadership decisions during crisis The book relied on information declassified by the government and on the voluminous public record relating to the Bush administration’s policies and their consequences Mr Fallon was confident that the book did not contain properly classified information 105 When he began writing Unjustifiable Means in 2014 Mr Fallon consulted former NCIS colleagues about whether he was required to submit the manuscript for prepublication review One advised him that he had not submitted his own manuscript and the others advised that they did not believe he was required to submit it 106 Through his own research Mr Fallon learned of the Defense Office of Prepublication and Security Review That office advised him over the telephone in June 2016 that the prepublication review process was “voluntary” and intended to aid authors On 36 Case 8 19-cv-00985-GJH Document 1 Filed 04 02 19 Page 37 of 42 October 4 2016 however he received an email from a DOD official who claimed that she had noticed on Amazon com that Unjustifiable Means was forthcoming and asked whether he had submitted it The official stated that Mr Fallon was required to submit his works for review The official also enclosed the DOD’s prepublication review directive and instruction in her email On January 3 2017 the official advised him by email that while DOD policies provide that review will be completed within 30 to 45 working days “the truth is that in most cases it takes a bit longer ” 107 Mr Fallon submitted his manuscript to the DOD’s review board the following day He had intended to publish the book at the start of the Trump administration in order to contribute to the public debate about torture which had become a major issue during the 2016 U S presidential campaign However after considering both the time period specified in the DOD’s policies and the additional information provided in the DOD official’s January 3 2017 email Mr Fallon and his publisher agreed to a publication date of March 7 2017 108 On January 11 2017 the DOD’s review board informed Mr Fallon that its review of his manuscript was complete but that the manuscript would have to be reviewed by other agencies as well The reviewing official in charge of reviewing Mr Fallon’s book refused to tell him which agencies When he told that officer that the book was scheduled to be published on March 7 2017 however the officer assured Mr Fallon that the DOD would do everything it could to complete review by that date 109 Prior to his planned publication date Mr Fallon emailed the reviewing official at least eight times In these emails he reminded the officer that delay would force his publisher to push back his publication date and that pushing back the publication date would require him to 37 Case 8 19-cv-00985-GJH Document 1 Filed 04 02 19 Page 38 of 42 cancel book tours signing events and speaking engagements Mr Fallon continued to regularly contact the DOD’s review board about his manuscript 110 The DOD informed Mr Fallon that review of his book was complete on August 25 2017—eight months after he submitted it Even then however the DOD told Mr Fallon that he could not publish the book without making 113 separate excisions In Mr Fallon’s view the excisions were arbitrary haphazard and inconsistent and at least in some instances seemingly intended to protect the CIA from embarrassment Some of them related to material that had been published in unclassified congressional reports Some were news articles Mr Fallon had cited 111 Although Mr Fallon believed that all of the excisions were unnecessary and unjustified he decided not to challenge them to avoid pushing back his publication date again Senior government officials including President Trump had been musing publicly about resurrecting torture policies and it was important to Mr Fallon that his book be published while it was still possible to influence the public debate on this subject The book was ultimately published on October 24 2017 112 Mr Fallon’s prepublication review experience with Unjustifiable Means was so time-consuming costly and exhausting that he is unsure whether he is willing to embark on writing another book Mr Fallon was in fact forced to cancel events and travel and to incur personal costs as a result His publisher threatened to cancel his contract for non-delivery and told him that publishing books by government officials was “not worth it” because of the unpredictability of the prepublication review process The review process was so stressful for Mr Fallon that for a time he discontinued certain consulting work while he waited for the review to be completed Mr Fallon also paid a premium after the book was cleared in order for his 38 Case 8 19-cv-00985-GJH Document 1 Filed 04 02 19 Page 39 of 42 editors to work to finalize publication on a tight timeframe And his publisher informed him that the delayed publication date made it less likely that bookstores would choose to carry or promote the book 113 Mr Fallon has submitted numerous shorter works for prepublication review since the publication of Unjustifiable Means For example Mr Fallon is currently in the process of publishing a manuscript titled The HIG Project The Road to Scientific Research on Interrogations as a chapter in a forthcoming book titled Interrogation and Torture Research on Efficacy and Its Integration with Morality and Legality Mr Fallon and his co-author contracted with the book’s editors to provide a draft of the chapter by November 1 2018 Mr Fallon submitted the chapter for DOD review on August 10 2018 and he and his co-author followed up with the office repeatedly over a period of several months On December 11 2018 more than a month after Mr Fallon’s draft deadline the ACLU and the Knight Institute sent a letter to the DOD’s review board on Mr Fallon’s behalf expressing concerns about the delay On January 14 2019 the Defense Intelligence Agency’s review board informed Mr Fallon’s co-author that the DOD’s review board was waiting for a response from the FBI 114 On February 11 2019 prepublication review of The HIG Project was completed and the chapter was cleared for publication with redactions All of the redacted material however was material that Mr Fallon had heard at unclassified public meetings with the HIG Research Committee Mr Fallon believes that the redactions were motivated by political disagreement with Mr Fallon and his co-author’s perspective on torture and work on the HIG Research Committee 115 Mr Fallon plans to continue submitting to the DOD any draft op-eds articles columns and books that he writes in the future 39 Case 8 19-cv-00985-GJH Document 1 Filed 04 02 19 Page 40 of 42 116 In Mr Fallon’s experience prepublication review has been haphazard and opaque and communication from the DOD has been sporadic and unhelpful 117 In Mr Fallon’s experience the personnel in the DOD’s review board appear to have no control or influence over the other agencies to which they send authors’ works for review and there appears to be a lack of accountability from those offices to the DOD 118 Mr Fallon’s experiences with prepublication review continue to negatively impact him and deny him the opportunity to contribute to the public debate over breaking news He would like to publish op-eds in newspapers about current affairs but his experiences with the review process have discouraged him from trying to do so because of potential delays and unjustified objections by the agency Mr Fallon has declined offers to author op-eds and write articles on topics of public concern in response to breaking news because such events require an immediate response in light of the ever-changing news cycle In addition Mr Fallon is unsure how his prepublication review obligations apply in academia—for example whether he must submit for review edits he makes to the work of other people or whether an entire piece written by someone else becomes subject to review if he adds one or two sentences This uncertainty hinders Mr Fallon’s work and his ability to engage with his colleagues 119 Finally Mr Fallon worries that the government will retaliate against him by stripping his security clearance if he does not strictly comply with prepublication review requirements This is especially concerning to Mr Fallon because his consulting work depends on his access to classified information Causes of Action 120 Defendants’ prepublication review regimes violate the First Amendment because they invest executive officers with sweeping discretion to suppress speech and fail to include procedural safeguards designed to avoid the dangers of a censorship system 40 Case 8 19-cv-00985-GJH Document 1 Filed 04 02 19 Page 41 of 42 121 Defendants’ prepublication review regimes are void for vagueness under the First and Fifth Amendments because they fail to provide former government employees with fair notice of what they must submit for prepublication review and of what they can and cannot publish and because they invite arbitrary and discriminatory enforcement Request for Relief 1 Declare that Defendants’ prepublication review regimes violate the First and Fifth Amendments to the Constitution 2 Enjoin Defendants their officers agents servants employees and attorneys and those persons in active concert or participation with them who receive actual notice of the injunction from continuing to enforce Defendants’ prepublication review regimes against Plaintiffs or any other person 3 Award Plaintiffs their costs and reasonable attorneys’ fees in this action and 4 Grant Plaintiffs such other relief as this Court may deem just and proper 41 Case 8 19-cv-00985-GJH Document 1 Filed 04 02 19 Page 42 of 42 April 2 2019 Respectfully submitted Brett Max Kaufman Vera Eidelman Naomi Gilens American Civil Liberties Union Foundation 125 Broad Street 18th Floor New York NY 10004 T 212 549 2500 F 212 549 2654 bkaufman@aclu org veidelman@aclu org ngilens@aclu org Jameel Jaffer Alex Abdo Ramya Krishnan Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University 475 Riverside Drive Suite 302 New York NY 10115 T 646 745 8500 jameel jaffer@knightcolumbia org alex abdo@knightcolumbia org ramya krishnan@knightcolumbia org s David R Rocah David R Rocah Bar No 27315 American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Maryland 3600 Clipper Mill Road Suite 350 Baltimore MD 21211 T 410 889 8555 F 410 366 7838 rocah@aclu-md org Counsel for Plaintiffs pro hac vice application forthcoming 42