Classified Information Procedures Act
The Classified Information Procedures Act or CIPA (Pub. L.Tooltip Public Law (United States) 96–456, 94 Stat. 2025, enacted October 15, 1980 through S. 1482) is codified as the third appendix to Title 18 of the U.S. Code, the title concerning crimes and criminal procedures. The U.S. Code citation is 18 U.S.C. App. III. Sections 1-16.
Other short titles | Classified Information Procedures Act of 1980 |
---|---|
Long title | An Act to provide certain pretrial, trial, and appellate procedures for criminal cases involving classified information. |
Acronyms (colloquial) | CIPA, CICTPA |
Nicknames | Classified Information Criminal Trial Procedures Act |
Enacted by | the 96th United States Congress |
Effective | October 15, 1980 |
Citations | |
Public law | 96-456 |
Statutes at Large | 94 Stat. 2025 |
Codification | |
Titles amended | 18 U.S.C.: Crimes and Criminal Procedure |
U.S.C. sections created | 18 U.S.C. Appendix §§ 1-16 |
Legislative history | |
|
Legislative revision history
The hidden table below lists the acts of Congress that affected the act directly. The years in which the legislative revisions were made appear in bold text preceding the Public Laws that enacted them. The links to the codification and the section notes may provide additional information about the legislative changes, as well.
USC Title 18 - Appendix - Sequence III - Classified Information Procedures Act | |
---|---|
The summary history of CIPA's codification through legislation:[1]
| |
Applicable executive orders
- Executive Order 12356, Apr. 06, 1982, 47 F.R. 14874, was rescinded by;
- Executive Order 12958, Apr. 17, 1995, 60 FR 19825, was rescinded after amended by;
- Executive Order 12972, Sept. 18, 1995, 60 FR 48863,
- Executive Order 13142, Nov. 19, 1999, 64 FR 66089,
- Executive Order 13292, Mar. 25, 2003, 68 FR 15315, was rescinded by;
- Executive Order 13526, Dec. 29, 2009, 75 FR 707, (current)
Purpose
The primary purpose of CIPA was to limit the practice of graymail by criminal defendants in possession of sensitive government secrets. "Graymail" refers to the threat by a criminal defendant to disclose classified information during the course of a trial. The graymailing defendant essentially presented the government with a "dilemma": either allow disclosure of the classified information or dismiss the indictment.
The procedural protections of CIPA protect unnecessary disclosure of classified information.[2][3]
CIPA was not intended to infringe on a defendant's right to a fair trial or to change the existing rules of evidence in criminal procedure,[4] and largely codified the power of district courts to come to pragmatic accommodations of the government's secrecy interests with the traditional right of public access to criminal proceedings. Courts, therefore, did not radically alter their practices with the passage of CIPA; instead, the Act simply made it clear that the measures courts already were taking under their inherent case-management powers were permissible.
CIPA, by its terms, covers only criminal cases. CIPA only applies when classified information is involved, as defined in the Act's Section 1.
See also
- Silent witness rule - evolved from the CIPA in the late 1900s/early 2000s
- Venona project (problems of using decrypted Soviet messages as evidence at court)
- State Secrets Protection Act
- Federal Tort Claims Act
- Thomas Andrews Drake (Espionage Act of 1917 case involving CIPA arguments)
- Joseph Nacchio (case involving CIPA arguments)
References
- Title 18, Appendix III Codification Source, Legal Information Institute (LII), Cornell University Law School.
- Congressional Research Service Summary of S.1482, 1980-09-30
- "Senate Report 110-442 - State Secrets Protection Act (Senate Judiciary Committee, 110th Congress)". The Library of Congress. 2008-08-01. Archived from the original on 2008-11-11. Retrieved 2009-04-21.
- S. Rep. No. 96-823 at 8
- Brian Z. Tamanaha, A Critical Review Of the Classified Information Procedures Act, 13 Am. J. Cr. L. 277 (1986).
External links
- 18 U.S.C. App. III. Sections 1-16, Legal Information Institute (LII), Cornell University Law School
- Classified Information Procedures Act (PDF/details) as amended in the GPO Statute Compilations collection
- Criminal Resource Manual 2054 Synopsis of Classified Information Procedures Act