United States V. The Progressive

United States V. The Progressive

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.

Due to 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.