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Claiming that the "prepublication review" system inflicted on all employees with security clearances is overly broad, arbitrary and capricious, and flagrantly unconstitutional, amounting to a "far-reaching system of prior restraint," the American Civil Liberties Union and the Knight First Amendment Institute are suing the Central Intelligence Agency, the National Security Agency, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, and the Defense Department on behalf of five former federal employees who argue the byzantine, confusing system has hurt them professionally.
The system also expedites the publication of memoirs favorable to the national security state and the government, while slow-walking or squelching others, the plaintiffs claim, citing emails obtained through a parallel Freedom of Information Act lawsuit that show security reviewers were under pressure to turn Hillary Clinton and James Comey's books around in under two months, while book-length manuscripts typically take about a year to review and some - including the plaintiffs' own works - take much longer.
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