The Legality of Leaks

The Pentagon Papers: a series of Department of Defense papers discussing the Vietnam War in negative terms. As we discussed this week they were leaked by Daniel Ellsberg to the media, eventually leading to a Supreme Court case and contributing to Nixon's downfall. The Watergate scandal: tapes and investigative findings leaked to Woodward and Bernstein by an FBI agent, an incident that led to Nixon's resignation. We also heard about the Supreme Court case involving Watergate which essentially reduced, if not ended, the ability of the White House to prevent the publication of controversial or secret material. These two examples of a leak are in a way positive examples of the practice. However, there are no doubt certain times when a leak could damage the reputation of an administration at a critical moment, leading to chaos and/or depriving the country of leadership. Another worst case scenario could be the release of classified information that informs our enemies what we are doing and how. Essentially, leaks are not always a good thing, and in my opinion they should be illegal under certain circumstances. After all, if someone steals something like a car for example, and then gives it to a dealer who is aware that it was stolen, both the dealer and the one who stole the car would be liable for criminal charges. I realize that information is not a physical object and is therefore different, but it seems to me that it isn't so different that people who leak government secrets shouldn't be liable in some way.