## Facts

- Frank W. Snepp III worked as a CIA officer and, as a condition of employment, signed a secrecy agreement requiring him to (1) not disclose classified information without authorization and (2) submit for CIA prepublication review any writing relating to the CIA or intelligence activities.
- After leaving the CIA, Snepp wrote and published *Decent Interval*, describing CIA activities in South Vietnam during the fall of Saigon.
- Snepp did not submit the manuscript for prepublication review, despite the agreement, and the district court found his breach was willful and involved misleading CIA officials about his intent to submit the book.
- The government conceded the book did not contain classified information.
- The district court found the publication caused irreparable harm to the United States based on the damage to the CIA’s ability to protect intelligence sources and methods through its review program.

## Issues

1. Whether publishing a book about CIA activities without required prepublication review breaches a former CIA employee’s fiduciary obligations to the United States.
2. Whether equitable relief may include an injunction requiring future prepublication review and a constructive trust over book profits without proof of specific monetary damages, consistent with the First Amendment.

## Decision

- The Supreme Court held that Snepp breached a fiduciary obligation by publishing without submitting the manuscript for prepublication review required by his CIA agreement.
- The Court upheld an injunction requiring Snepp to submit future CIA-related writings for prepublication review.
- The Court reversed the court of appeals’ rejection of disgorgement and reinstated a constructive trust over all profits from *Decent Interval* for the benefit of the United States.
- The Court reasoned that requiring proof of particularized damages would risk disclosure of sensitive information and would inadequately protect the government’s national-security interests.

## Legal Principles

- A prepublication-review obligation undertaken as a condition of employment in an intelligence agency may create enforceable fiduciary duties, not merely contractual duties.
- Breach of a prepublication-review requirement can constitute actionable harm independent of whether the publication contains classified information, because bypassing review undermines protection of intelligence sources and methods.
- When a fiduciary breaches a duty of trust to the government, profits derived from the breach may be treated as the fruits of wrongdoing and placed in a constructive trust for the government.
- Equitable remedies may be structured to avoid forcing the government to prove damages through litigation that could require disclosure of sensitive or classified information.
- Enforcing a voluntary prepublication-review condition designed to prevent disclosure of classified material is not, on its face, an unconstitutional restriction on speech.

## Conclusion

The Court enforced a CIA officer’s prepublication-review agreement as a fiduciary obligation, approved injunctive relief requiring future review, and required disgorgement of all book profits through a constructive trust even though the book was conceded to contain no classified information.


Snepp v. United States, 444 U.S. 507 (1980)