Imagine a law so broad it could make your dreams illegal. That's the essence of the "born secret" doctrine, a part of U.S. law that automatically classifies all information about nuclear weapons.
Created by the Atomic Energy Act of 1946, this rule says any nuclear weapons information is secret from the moment it's thought up — even if you came up with the idea on your own.
Howard Morland, writing about this law for the Cardazo Law Review, said: "If you related a dream about nuclear weapons, you were breaking the law." It's not just an exaggeration. The law really does reach that far.
This creates some strange situations. In 1976, Princeton student John Aristotle Phillips designed a nuclear bomb on paper using only publicly available information. Even though he didn't use any government secrets, his work was immediately classified.
The "born secret" rule is the only U.S. law that can make it illegal to discuss information that's already public. It even applies to guesses or imaginative ideas about nuclear technology.
Previously:
• Russia just declassified this film of the world's largest nuclear bomb
• Radioactive wasp nest found at old nuclear bomb material factory
• Here's a plan to detonate the world's largest H-bomb to end global warming — what could go wrong?
