"When a B-29 bomber exploded over Georgia in 1948, the victims' families were denied access to crucial information relating to the accident because the federal government claimed such access would endanger national security. When the Supreme Court upheld that claim in United States v. Reynolds (1953), a new precedent was established, allowing the executive branch to assert an all-encompassing "state secret privilege" as a basis for withholding information from public scrutiny." "For more than fifty years that decision has been viewed with apprehension by a great many scholars and citizens, who feel it has fostered a dangerous cult of secrecy and undermined accountability by declaring that only the executive branch can be trusted with sensitive material. Now Louis Fisher recounts the story of Reynolds to reassess its lasting impact on our society." "He critiques the government's arguments in Reynolds from district court to Supreme Court and dissects the landmark opinion authored by Chief Justice Fred Vinson. He also explains how Reynolds affected subsequent battles over executive-held information both within the courtsthe Pentagon Papers, the Watergate tapes - and between Congress and the president, as exemplified by the Freedom of Information Act and the much-debated Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. Drawing upon declassified documents and interviews with surviving family members, he weaves a compelling story - one that took a new twist when it was finally discovered that the information originally withheld was not sensitive at all but rather revealed Air Force negligence." "In light of the Bush administration's continued use of Reynolds to justify its post-9/11 claims to unilateral authority, Fisher's work could not be more timely."--Jacket.