Center for National Security Studies

About CNSS

The Center for National Security Studies, a non-governmental advocacy and research organization, was founded in 1974 to work for control of the FBI and CIA and to prevent violations of civil liberties in the United States. The Center is the only non-profit human rights and civil liberties organization, whose core mission is to prevent claims of national security from eroding civil liberties or constitutional procedures.

A central challenge for democratic societies is to maintain national security while enhancing individual freedoms. Defense of civil liberties and constitutional procedures in the face of claims of national security is a never-ending task that requires constant vigilance and public awareness. The Center for National Security Studies plays that role as the only institution devoted solely to this constitutional watchdog function. The Center leverages its influence by working with coalitions of traditional civil liberties groups, human rights groups, historians, journalists, scientists and the new electronic privacy and civil liberties groups, providing legal and policy experience and expertise.

The Center works to strengthen the public right of access to government information, combat excessive government secrecy, assure effective oversight of intelligence agencies, protect the right of political dissent, prevent illegal government surveillance, and protect the free exchange of ideas and information across international borders. Since 1993, the Center has also worked internationally to assist human rights organizations and government officials in establishing oversight and accountability of intelligence agencies in emerging democracies throughout the world.

The Center is partners with the National Security Archive, the most successful non-profit user of the U.S. Freedom of Information Act and the largest non-governmental collection of declassified U.S. documents, on domestic and international projects involving access to government information.

Accomplishments

The Center has achieved enormous successes over the years. It has made policy-makers more aware that it is possible to meet legitimate national security concerns without diminishing civil liberties or constitutional procedures. The activities of CNSS have made government officials more sensitive to the civil liberties implications of their actions and to the need to find a means to accomplish their objectives that also protects individual freedoms.

The Center has achieved landmark victories such as:

Ensuring basic civil liberty protections and multiple layers of review in government procedures for foreign intelligence wiretapping;

Defeating the Bush administration's attempt in the Supreme Court to overturn Congress's right to intelligence information and a similar Clinton administration effort seven years later;

Organizing the "End the Cold War at Home" campaign that identified and began the reversal of civil liberty restrictions left over from the Cold War;

Outlining the secrecy reforms that were incorporated in the 1995 Clinton Executive Order on classification;

Leading the "Free Trade in Ideas" campaign that repealed ideological visa exclusions and the bans on information exchange included in U.S. trade embargoes;

Restoring minimal privacy and due process rights in security clearance investigations by the U.S. government; and

Suing the CIA to force the historic release of the intelligence budgets for 1997 and 1998, among thousands of other government documents that would be secret today if not for the Center's successful litigation efforts over 25 years.

The influence of the Center and its philosophy have been reflected in a number of proposals that have become law, including:

the Intelligence Oversight Act of 1980, which requires the Executive to notify Congress of covert activities, and its revision in 1991 following Iran-Contra;

the Classified Information Procedures Act, establishing rules for the use of classified information in criminal trials and making possible the indictment of former government officials who violate the Constitution;

reforms to the immigration laws removing ideological barriers to entry;

the President Kennedy Assassination Records Act of 1992, setting stringent standards for the withholding from the public of secret government documents; and

the Berman Amendment of 1988 and the Free Trade in Ideas Act of 1994, prohibiting restrictions on the free flow of information.

The Center has sued the CIA and the FBI numerous times both to enforce individual rights, e.g., for illegally keeping files on citizens, and to force the disclosure of important documents. It has written numerous Supreme Court briefs on national security issues, including freedom of information and separation of powers. It has challenged in court the President's power to go to war without advance Congressional approval, illegal government surveillance, and prosecution of government officials for leaking information.

The Center has frequently testified before the United States Congress, including the House and Senate Intelligence Committees on issues ranging from secrecy and classification of national security information, government surveillance and congressional access to intelligence information, to the constitutional right to travel.

It publishes policy reports, newsletters and books, holds conferences and its staff writes and speaks widely on the entire range of civil liberties and national security topics. Some of its most recent publications, reports and newspaper clippings are listed below.