Bernstein v. United States Department of Justice

Daniel Bernstein (plaintiff), a Ph.D. student, developed an encryption program called "Snuffle" and wanted to share it with the academic community. The government (defendant) told him he needed an export license to publish Snuffle in either paper or source-code form, treating the code as a regulated "munition." Bernstein sued, arguing his source code was protected speech under the First Amendment; the government argued source code's functional, machine-controlling nature took it outside First Amendment protection.