United States v. Marchetti

To fulfill the CIA Director's statutory duty to safeguard intelligence sources and methods, the CIA required employees to sign secrecy agreements as a condition of employment; Victor Marchetti (defendant), a former CIA employee, signed such agreements both when hired and when he resigned, promising not to disclose classified or intelligence-related information. After leaving the agency, Marchetti published a novel and articles describing his experiences and sent a publisher an outline for a further book on similar subjects; the government sought to enforce his agreements by requiring prior CIA authorization before any future publication, and the district court so ordered.