The Export Control Act of 1949 gave the President power to prohibit or curtail the export of technical data.[489] Also pertinent is the stipulation in an August 1953 statute permitting the government to lend certain vessels to Italy, which prohibited the transmission to Italy of information, plans, advise, material, documents, blueprints, or other papers bearing a secret or top secret classification.[490]
In 1951 legislation was enacted prohibiting disclosure of classified information. It is unlawful knowingly and willingly to communicate, furnish or transmit to an unauthorized person the following categories of classified information: (1) codes, cipher or the cryptographic system of the United States or any foreign government; (2) the design, construction, use, maintenance, or repair of any device, apparatus, or appliance used or prepared or planned for use by the United States or any government for cryptographic or communication intelligence purposes; (3) the communication intelligence activities of the United States or any foreign government; or (4) obtained by the processes of communication intelligence from the communications of any foreign government knowing the same to have been obtained by such processes.[491] Violators of this law can be fined up to $10,000, be imprisoned for ten years, or suffer the imposition of both penalties.[492]
The Communist Organization Registration Act of July 1954 requires organizations found by the Subversive Activities Control Board to be Communist-action or Communist-front organizations to provide the Attorney General a listing of all printing presses and machines.[493] The list of different kinds of presses is very extensive.[494]
Censorship of Communications Media: The War Powers Act of December 1941 specifically empowered the President to establish censorship of communications between the United States and foreign countries. During the existence of the war, the President, at his discretion, established rules and regulations for the censorship of communications by mail, cable, radio, or other means of transmission passing between the United States and any foreign country. The authority to prescribe the rule by which censorship would be applied, extended to communications carried by any vessel or other means of transportation touching at any port, place, or territory of the United States and bound to or from any foreign country.[495]
A month later the Communications Act of 1934 was amended to enable the President during time of war or threat of war to regulate or close any or all facilities or stations for wire communication within the jurisdiction of the United States.[496] Nearly ten years later this power was extended to any or all stations or devices capable of emitting electromagnetic radiations within the jurisdiction of the United States.[497] The power to close stations for radio communication within the jurisdiction of the United States included those suitable as navigational aids beyond five miles of the United States.[498]
Acquisition of Information by the Government
Examined herein are statutes requiring private persons or groups to report their activities to government agencies, or compelling them to testify before such agencies; and providing for the conduct or study of experiments by government agencies, including congressional committees, for the purpose of obtaining certain information. Other measures provide for a variety of investigations, inventories, audits, etc., to be conducted by government agencies and congressional committees, and intelligence.
Compulsory Reporting:[499] Compulsory reporting on an occasional or periodic basis, it is generally assumed, constitutes an effective enforcement device. Thus to aid the President in effectively exercising the powers granted therein, the Bank Conservation Act of 1933[500] provided that he might require specific, detailed, and confidential information to be given under oath by any person then engaged in the banking business. The President could require the production of private papers, letters, contracts, books of account or other papers in the custody of the person required to produce them. Not until a very detailed and thorough examination of the information sought had been completed, could an accurate report be prepared in compliance with the Act.[501] The National Industrial Recovery Act permitted the President to impose such conditions (including requirements for the making of reports, the keeping of records and the keeping of accounts) for the protection of consumers, competitors, employees, and others, and in furtherance of the public interest as he saw fit, as a condition of approval of codes of fair competition.[502] Another section of the Act required trade or industrial associations, if they were to receive the benefit of exemption from antitrust prosecution, to file a statement with the President in accordance with regulations promulgated by the Chief Executive.[503] The Securities Exchange Act of 1934 similarly required periodical reporting[504] as did the 1935 enactment directed at preventing the interstate shipment of contraband oil.[505]
The first Neutrality Act imposed upon all persons required to register with the National Munitions Control Board an obligation to maintain permanent records of all arms, ammunition and implements of war manufactured for importation and exportation under the rules prescribed by the Board.[506] The requirement was continued in the 1937 Amendment which designated the Secretary of State (Chairman of the N.M.C.B. under the old and the amended Act) as recipient of the information to be submitted.[507] The Foreign Agents Registration Act of 1938 (as amended in April 1942) not only required the filing of registration statements by agents of foreign powers, but compelled each registered agent to keep and preserve books of account and other records which he was required to disclose under regulations prescribed by the Attorney General.[508]
As to procurement statutes, Congress, in connection with a 1934 enactment directed against excessive profit-making or collusive bidding in connection with naval construction contracts, required contractors to agree, as a condition of receiving a navy contract, to submit reports which would show conformance or non-conformance with the provisions of the Act.[509] The Second War Powers Act of 1942 followed up the grant of power to exact priorities with a section entitling the President to obtain a wide variety of information from any persons holding defense contracts. Contractors were required to keep accurate records in readiness for whatever accounting the President might eventually request.[510]