re: #88 Dopamine Fish

There is a procedure he would have had to follow. The President can’t just unilaterally declare documents declassified; it is subject to review by the agency which classified it in the first place.

I am not sure this is true. The power to classify or declassify documents stems from the president to people he designates. As the law stands now the president can choose to declassify something mid conversation if he chooses. The agencies that do the initial classification gain that authority through the president and can not override him. There are pretty on point supreme court rulings on this and since the power flows from article II of the constitution it isn’t even likely congress could pass a law restricting it without bringing up serious separation of powers issues.

The rules for classification are set forth in an executive order and the executive can change those rules as he sees fit.