Grounding a Critic

The high court upholds the lifting of a maverick's passport

In 1979 the Iranian "students" who had just seized more than 50 American hostages at the U.S. embassy received a surprising offer: Would they like expert analysis of CIA documents that might lay bare the agency's involvement in Iran's affairs? What was most notable about the offer was that it came from an American, himself an eleven-year veteran of the CIA. He was Philip Agee, now 46, who after leaving the agency in 1968 launched an international campaign to expose its undercover agents and methods. Since the publication of his 1975 book, Inside the Company: CIA Diary, he and his collaborators have stripped the cover from hundreds of operatives, a few of whom were later mysteriously killed. Before Agee could board a plane to Tehran, however, then Secretary of State Cyrus Vance revoked his passport, thus keeping him in West Germany, his temporary home since 1978. Agee convinced two federal courts in Washington that Vance had exceeded his authority. But last week the Supreme Court, by 7 to 2, reversed both lower courts and upheld Vance.

At issue was a 1966 State Department regulation allowing a passport to be revoked if the holder's activities abroad "are causing or are likely to cause serious damage to the national security or foreign policy of the U.S." Congress gave the Executive Branch the power to oversee such matters in 1926, but Agee argued that the 1966 regulation was too sweeping. Writing for the majority, Chief Justice Warren Burger disagreed, maintaining that Congress had long recognized the Executive's broad passport authority and had passed up obvious opportunities to limit it.

Nor could Agee convince the court that Vance had denied him three constitutional rights: freedom of speech, freedom to travel abroad and a due process hearing before the revocation. Burger dismissed these claims as "without merit." Weighing the right to travel against the Government's concerns, he said, "No governmental interest is more compelling than the security of the nation."

The decision filled many lawyers --and other U.S. citizens--with misgivings. "Nobody likes Agee very much," said Columbia Law Professor Benno Schmidt Jr. "But in its haste to punish Agee, the court wrote an overbroad and ill-conceived opinion." Added American Civil Liberties Union Lawyer Mark Lynch: "There's nothing in the opinion that limits the ruling to former CIA agents. Spock, Coffin, Fonda, Hayden, Ramsey Clark--all these critics speaking around the world could have had their passports taken away."

His case finally settled and his passport definitely lost, Agee could now be forced to return to the U.S. But last week's setback may do little to slow the ex-agent's campaign; due out this month is his latest book: Philip Agee on the CIA and El Salvador.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.