National Security in the Courts: The Need for Secrecy vs. the Requirements for Transparency
By Derigan Silver
LFB Scholarly Publishing, 2010
National Security in the Courts, part of the publishers Law and Society Series, explores how judges identified the main legal issue and the mode of legal analysis they employed to justify their decision in federal cases dealing with national security. The book explains how national security/transparency cases are as much about separation of powers issues as they are about balancing transparency with national security. The book concludes that the ability to selectively choose which legal issues to focus on and to rely on some modes of legal analysis while ignoring others gives judges the flexibility to mold law regarding national security information. Silver is an assistant professor of film, media and journalism studies. He teaches graduate and undergraduate courses on the First Amendment, media law, Internet law, political communication and communication and society.