SECRECY NEWS
from the FAS Project on Government Secrecy
Volume 2018, Issue No. 19
March 22, 2018

Secrecy News Blog: https://fas.org/blogs/secrecy/

2017 NUCLEAR STOCKPILE TOTAL DECLASSIFIED

The number of nuclear weapons in the U.S. nuclear stockpile dropped to 3,822 as of September 30, 2017, down from 4,018 a year earlier. (Retired weapons awaiting dismantlement are not included in the totals.)

Meanwhile, 354 nuclear weapons were dismantled in 2017, up from 258 the year before.

These figures were declassified in response to a request from the Federation of American Scientists and were made public yesterday.

The declassification of the current size of the US nuclear arsenal was a breakthrough in national security transparency that was accomplished for the first time by the Obama Administration in 2010.

It was uncertain until now whether or when the Trump Administration would follow suit.

Because the stockpile information qualifies as Formerly Restricted Data under the Atomic Energy Act, its declassification does not occur spontaneously or on a defined schedule. Disclosure requires coordination and approval by both the Department of Energy and the Department of Defense, and it often needs to be prompted by some external factor.

Last October, the Federation of American Scientists petitioned for declassification of the stockpile numbers, and the request was ultimately approved.

"Your request was the original driver for the declassification," said Dr. Andrew Weston-Dawkes, the director of the DOE Office of Classification. "We regret the long time to complete the process but in the end the process does work."

Earlier this week, FAS requested declassification of the current inventory of Highly Enriched Uranium, which has not been updated since 2013.

MODES OF CONSTITUTIONAL INTERPRETATION

The US Constitution leaves many basic questions of constitutional law unanswered, whether because they could not be anticipated or because the text is broadly worded or ambiguous.

Consequently, "Interpretation is necessary to determine the meaning of ambiguous provisions of the Constitution or to answer fundamental questions left unaddressed by the drafters," a new report from the Congressional Research Service explains.

But there are different ways to perform such interpretation that may yield different results.

The new CRS report provides a helpful introduction to the most common "modes" of interpretation, including textualism, original meaning, judicial precedent, pragmatism, moral reasoning, national identity, structuralism, and historical practices.

Interpreting the Constitution is not a task left solely to the Supreme Court; it is also a responsibility of Members of Congress. "Members should vote upon legislation based on their own constitutional interpretations, which may be at odds with the Court's," wrote former Sen. Russ Feingold, but "they should not vote for legislation without any thought whatsoever regarding its constitutionality."

See Modes of Constitutional Interpretation, March 15, 2018:

Other new and updated reports from the Congressional Research Service include the following.

The U.S. Export Control System and the Export Control Reform Initiative, updated March 15, 2018:

The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), updated March 13, 2018:

China-U.S. Trade Issues, updated March 14, 2018:

Pass-Throughs, Corporations, and Small Businesses: A Look at Firm Size, updated March 15, 2018:

Jurisdiction Stripping: When May Congress Prohibit the Courts from Hearing a Case?, CRS Legal Sidebar, March 15, 2018:

Membership of the 115th Congress: A Profile, updated March 19, 2018:

Women in Congress, 1917-2018: Service Dates and Committee Assignments by Member, and Lists by State and Congress, updated March 19, 2018:

******************************

Secrecy News is written by Steven Aftergood and published by the Federation of American Scientists.

The Secrecy News blog is at:
      https://fas.org/blogs/secrecy/

To SUBSCRIBE to Secrecy News, go to:
     https://fas.org/sgp/news/secrecy/subscribe.html

To UNSUBSCRIBE, go to:
      https://fas.org/sgp/news/secrecy/unsubscribe.html

OR email your request to saftergood@fas.org

Secrecy News is archived at:
      https://fas.org/sgp/news/secrecy/index.html

SUPPORT the FAS Project on Government Secrecy with a donation here:
      https://fas.org/donate/