U.S. Disclosure Form Ban Broken, Suit Charges

The Reagan Administration was accused in court papers Friday of continuing to force employees to sign agreements not to disclose classified information despite a one-year moratorium imposed by Congress.

The American Foreign Service Assn. filed a motion in U.S. District Court for a preliminary injunction to force Secretary of State George P. Schultz to stop ordering State Department employees to sign one of the non-disclosure forms.

The injunction sought by the plaintiffs also would direct CIA Director William H. Webster and Steven Garfinkel, head of the Information Security Oversight Office, to order other federal agencies to stop forcing employees to sign the forms.

One of the forms, SF 189, binds federal employees never to divulge classified or classifiable information without permission. More than 1.7 million federal employees in sensitive jobs have signed the form.

The other form, SF 4193, also requires employees to seek “pre-publication review of contemplated disclosures.”

Rights Violation Seen

Critics in Congress contend the forms violate the First Amendment rights of government employees. These critics argue that inclusion of “classifiable information” gives agencies the power to punish whistle-blowers by classifying information after it has been disclosed.

When it passed the continuing resolution for the 1988 fiscal year, Congress said no money could be used during the fiscal year to force employees to sign the agreements or other non-disclosure forms.

The brief charged that “numerous employees have been required to sign forms SF 189 and SF 4193 since the passage of the continuing resolution.”

Cite Navy, AF Actions

The plaintiffs charged that a division of the Navy last month ordered its employees to sign one of the forms, and the Air Force issued a directive last month saying “that signing SF 189 is a prerequisite to access to classified information.”

Foreign service officers, who are members of the American Foreign Service Assn., are still being required to sign SF 4193, the court papers charged.

“The Administration has continued to implement the standard forms at issue in this case, despite Congress’ explicit direction in the continuing resolution that all such implementation efforts must cease. Such illegal conduct should not be allowed to continue,” the lawsuit said.