Copyright (c) 2009 All rights reserved. http://works.bepress.com/william_weaver Recent documents in William G Weaver en-us Sun, 31 May 2009 13:08:49 PDT 3600 http://works.bepress.com/william_weaver/1 http://works.bepress.com/william_weaver/1 Wed, 27 Feb 2008 17:38:28 PST The state secrets privilege is the most important and effective secrecy privilege available to the president. In recent decades it has been used more frequently and the executive branch has successfully sought to expand the scope of the privilege beyond what constitutional limits should bear. Despite the importance of the privilege to the modern presidency there has never been a detailed account of the beginnings and development of the privilege. This article seeks to explain the origins of the privilege and how the privilege was adapted to U.S. law. This adaptation was infelicitous in a number of respects, and courts, accountability, and the people of the United States have suffered needlessly because the law is now a servant to executive claims of national security. William G. Weaver General Law Legal History