Presidential Secrecy and the Law

Extract

Presidential Secrecy and the Law. By Robert M. Pallitto and William G. Weaver. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2007. 261p. $50.00 cloth, $25.00 paper.

Empirical work about governmental secrecy faces an obvious hurdle: The more extensive, thus worthy of analysis, that secrecy is, the less there is to analyze. Yet given recent events and their stakes—the potential that secrecy has for “destroying or undermining the legal, political, and cultural traditions that undergird our political system” (p. 5)—the kindling of scholarly light to shine into this void is vital. In this comprehensive if sometimes polemic narrative detailing modern presidents' institutionalization of secrecy in the executive branch, Robert M. Pallitto and William G. Weaver take a welcome step in this direction.