Classification and Security Clearances

The modern classification system rests mostly on presidential executive orders rather than statute, beginning with President Franklin Roosevelt's order of March 22, 1940, and revised by most later presidents. The current framework is Executive Order 13526 of December 29, 2009, which sets three levels: Confidential, for information whose disclosure could damage national security, Secret, for serious damage, and Top Secret, for exceptionally grave damage. Some information is further restricted as sensitive compartmented information or in special access programs, and nuclear weapons data is classified under the Atomic Energy Act.

Only officials designated as original classification authorities may classify information, and they must set a date for declassification, with most records reviewed for automatic declassification after 25 years. The Information Security Oversight Office at the National Archives oversees the system. To see classified information, a person needs a clearance at the right level and a need to know. Clearances require background investigations, conducted mainly by the Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency, and about 4 million people hold them, including military personnel, civil servants, and contractors.

Officials and outside reviewers across the spectrum agree that far too much information is classified, which can hide mistakes from the public and makes it harder to protect true secrets, while leaks and mishandling cases have repeatedly drawn attention to weak controls. The President has broad authority over clearances, and in 2025 the administration revoked the clearances of dozens of former officials and political opponents and moved against several law firms by suspending their lawyers' clearances, actions some courts found unlawful. Supporters said clearances are a privilege the President may withdraw, while critics said they were being used to punish critics.