The Washington Post Company v. United States Department of State

This is a difficult and perplexing case which requires the reconciliation of two lines of conflicting congressional directives.

1. On the one hand, two sets of statutes counsel secrecy. First, there are the statutes authorizing the Secretary to account for these expenditures by merely certifying their amount without disclosing their nature. 22 U.S.C. § 2671(a) (1976); 31 U.S.C. § 107 (1976). The procedure of accounting for expenditures relating to foreign affairs secretly through certificates is almost as old as the Constitution. In the Act of Feb. 9, 1793, ch. IV, § 2, 1 Stat. 299, 300,…