United States v. The Progressive

United States of America v. Progressive, Inc.
The cover of the November 1979 The Progressive which the United States Department of Energy attempted to censor.
Court	United States District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin
Full case name	United States of America v. Progressive, Inc., Erwin Knoll, Samuel Day, Jr., and Howard Morland.
Date decided	March 28, 1979
Citation(s)	467 F. Supp. 990 (W.D. Wis. 1979)
Judge(s) sitting	Robert W. Warren

United States of America v. Progressive, Inc., Erwin Knoll, Samuel Day, Jr., and Howard Morland 467 F. Supp. 990 (W.D. Wis. 1979) is the name of a lawsuit against the magazine The Progressive by the U.S. government, specifically the United States Department of Energy (DOE) in 1979.

A temporary injunction was granted against The Progressive in order to prevent the publication of an article by activist Howard Morland that purported to reveal the "secret" of the hydrogen bomb. Though the information was compiled from public domain sources, the DOE claimed that it fell under the "born secret" clause of the Atomic Energy Act of 1954.

Because of the nature of the information at stake in the trial, two separate hearings were conducted, one in public, and the other in camera. The defendants, Morland and the editors of The Progressive, would not accept security clearances, which would put restraints on their free speech, and so were not present at the in camera hearings. Their lawyers did accept clearances so that they could participate, but were forbidden from conveying the information to their clients.

The article was eventually published after the government dropped their case during the appeals process, calling it moot after other information was independently published, though many observers at the time thought it was because it was becoming clear their arguments were not being well received by the judges and they were afraid that the Atomic Energy Act might be ruled unconstitutional.

Prior restraint

Howard Morland in 2008

U.S. government drops case

A detailed account of the case and the events leading up to it was published by four nuclear scientists who participated in the public and in-camera trials and their preparation.

See also

• Censorship in the United States
• Freedom of the press in the United States
• Freedom of speech in the United States
• New York Times Co. v. United States - a related "prior restraint" case
• Prior restraint#The H-bomb article cases
• Teller–Ulam design#The Progressive case – the "secret", along with a brief account of the case
  • History of the Teller–Ulam design#The Progressive case - additional information on the case

Bibliography

• Devolpi, A.; Marsh, Gerald E.; Postol, T.A.; Stanford, G.S. (1981). Born Secret: The H-Bomb, the Progressive Case and National Security. New York: Pergamon Press. ISBN 0-08-025995-2. OCLC 7197387. 
• Dumain, Ian M. (2004). "No Secret, No Defense: United States v. Progressive". Cardozo Law Review 26 (4). 
• Entin, Jonathan L. (1980). United States v. Progressive, Inc.: The Faustian Bargain and the First Amendment. 75. 
• Kidder, Ray E. (2004). "Transcript of Weapons of Mass Destruction, National Security and a Free Press". Cardozo Law Review 26 (4). 
• Knoll, Erwin (editor of The Progressive) (1994). "The H-Bomb and the First Amendment". William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal 3 (2). 
• Morland, Howard (2004). "Born Secret". Cardozo Law Review 26 (4). http://www.fas.org/sgp/eprint/cardozo.html. 
• Lucas A. (1990). "The H-Bomb Injunction". University of Colorado Law Review 61. 
• Rudenstine, David (2004). "Transcript of Weapons of Mass Destruction, National Security and a Free Press: Seminal Issues as Viewed Through the Lens of of the Progressive Case". Cardozo Law Review 26 (4). 

Further reading

• Kennedy, Caroline; Ellen Alderman (1991). In Our Defense: The Bill of Rights in Action. Avon Books. pp. 37-55. ISBN 0-380-71720-4. 
• Howard Morland, The Secret that exploded (New York: Random House, 1981).

External links

• Telford, Thomas L.; Herbeck, Dale A.. "United States v. Progressive, Inc. (Text of the decision)". Freedom of Speech in the United States. Boston: Boston College. http://www.bc.edu/bc_org/avp/cas/comm/free_speech/progressive.html. Retrieved 4 March 2012. 
• "The H-Bomb Secret: How we got it, why we're telling\ (entire issue online)". The Progressive. November 1979. http://www.progressive.org/hbomb. Retrieved 4 March 2012. 
• Picture of Morland and his model H-bomb from 1983.
• Preliminary injunction ruling against The Progressive
• "The Holocaust Bomb: A Question of Time" by Howard Morland, further thoughts on bomb "secrets"