Secret Laws in the U.S.

Have you ever heard about “secret laws” in the United States?

I have not.

This reminds me of a part from the 1978 movie “Animal House”,  when Dean Wormer stated “Oh! Then as of this moment, they're on double secret probation!”.

An article in the new site Vocativ informs us of a new survey from the last 30 years, which showed an increasing number of “secret laws” passed and kept from the American people.

Not only does this survey inform us of these “secret laws”, but it shows that they have been steadily increasing over recent years.

An Ohio State professor of law, who is a former senior national security analyst for the Senate Budget Committee, and also worked for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, found that “more and more bills passed by Congress include provisions that allow for secret elements—which become law without the American people knowing what they contain”.

These “secret laws” come mostly from the Department of Defense Appropriations Act, the Intelligence Authorization Act, and the National Defense Authorization Act.

These “secret laws” have spiked twice in the recent years.  The first time came in the middle of the Iraq war under President George W. Bush, and the second time during the second half of President Obama’s first term.

I understand that some laws dealing with America’s secret programs need to be passed and kept secret, but why have we not heard about these before?

Shouldn’t the public at least be notified when secret laws dealing with our nation’s security were passed, and the number of them that were passed?

Or due to the fact they are dealing with our nation’s security, and the programs that follow these laws are secret, should we not even know when or how many were passed?

Also, how are we to know that the departments who must follow these laws are actually doing their job and enforcing the laws?  After all, we have seen how the State Department did not make Hillary Clinton follow the law in regards to her personal email server.

Let’s talk about this today on The Live with Renk Show which airs Monday through Friday 9 a.m. to noon. To let me know your thoughts during the show please call (269) 441-9595.

Or please feel free to start a discussion and write your thoughts in the comment section.