# Are There Any US Government Files Being Sealed In Perpetuity? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 15, 2012, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-us-government-files-being-sealed-in-perpetuity/615882 "2012-03-15T18:05:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![AndyLee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/898d66/32.png) [@AndyLee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AndyLee)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2012, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-us-government-files-being-sealed-in-perpetuity/615882/1 "2012-03-15T18:05:25Z")
I know certain files by the US government are sealed for a certain time. Like I think census data is sealed for 70 years. But is there anything now being held sealed in perpetuity? Like say a defense plan from the Civil War or something really old. Or will everything get released eventually? ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2012, 5:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-us-government-files-being-sealed-in-perpetuity/615882/2 "2012-03-16T05:48:21Z")
How would we know? ---
**Author:** ![Reply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reply/32/15952_2.png) [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2012, 8:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-us-government-files-being-sealed-in-perpetuity/615882/3 "2012-03-16T08:52:22Z")
There’s the [Freedom of Information Act](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_of_Information_Act_%28United_States%29), but that only works if you trust the government to properly classify its documents and to act in good faith even when a release will put itself in a bad light, which is both against human nature and against the interests of the Powers That Be. If the government wants to hide something from you and you’re only a citizen, it’s pretty likely you’ll never hear about it. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2012, 9:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-us-government-files-being-sealed-in-perpetuity/615882/4 "2012-03-16T09:25:40Z")
nm ---
**Author:** ![Ken001](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/43a26b/32.png) [@Ken001](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ken001)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2012, 10:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-us-government-files-being-sealed-in-perpetuity/615882/5 "2012-03-16T10:51:53Z")
I’m sure Rose Mary Woods has a few under the stairs. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![DrFidelius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drfidelius/32/3447_2.png) [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2012, 11:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-us-government-files-being-sealed-in-perpetuity/615882/6 "2012-03-16T11:52:52Z")
Yes, for instance there’s [**redacted**], the [**redacted**] commission report, and the [**redacted**] inquiry. ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2012, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-us-government-files-being-sealed-in-perpetuity/615882/7 "2012-03-16T16:18:48Z")
I believe that some individually-identifiable materials, such as tax returns or personnel files, are never made public, but they’re probably not kept forever either. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2012, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-us-government-files-being-sealed-in-perpetuity/615882/8 "2012-03-18T01:38:56Z")
Hmm. Nicolas Cage was in that documentary a few years ago about the President having a book that no one else could look at… ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2012, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-us-government-files-being-sealed-in-perpetuity/615882/9 "2012-03-18T02:11:24Z")
The Kennedy files are an obvious answer. Weren’t they due for release a few years ago? Then the date got pushed up again. > [@](#): > > The former House Select Committee on Assassinations sent 848 boxes of unpublished documents it had collected to the National Archives, where they were to be sealed until the year 2029. > **[A MOVE TO UNSEAL THE KENNEDY FILES (Published 1992)](https://www.nytimes.com/1992/01/22/us/a-move-to-unseal-the-kennedy-files.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm)** ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2012, 5:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-us-government-files-being-sealed-in-perpetuity/615882/10 "2012-03-18T05:21:38Z")
> [@Tom\_Tildrum](#): > > I believe that some individually-identifiable materials, such as tax returns or personnel files, are never made public, but they’re probably not kept forever either. Isn’t declassification or length of classification a modern idea anyway? Earlier documents were just stored and no one was permitted to see them and they were forgotten until rediscovered by historians centuries later? I suppose that is what will happen to the surviving types of documents you mention. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2012, 5:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-us-government-files-being-sealed-in-perpetuity/615882/11 "2012-03-18T05:37:37Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > The Kennedy files are an obvious answer. [Nope.](http://www.archives.gov/research/jfk/faqs.html#sealed) As your link says, in the early '90s Congress created a review board for the express purpose of making a lot of those documents public, and that’s what happened. The National Archives says almost all of those documents are now public, and they have been for 15 to 20 years (not including stuff that was public before that). The site says, and I apologize for the unnecessary modifiers, “With a very few exceptions, virtually all of the records identified as belonging to the Kennedy Collection have been opened in part or in full.” > [@](#): > > Weren’t they due for release a few years ago? Then the date got pushed up again. The National Archives says that’s a few years away: > [@](#): > > In addition, according to Section 5(g)(2)(D) of the Act, all records in the Kennedy Collection will be opened by 2017 unless certified as justifiably closed by the President of the United States. ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2012, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-us-government-files-being-sealed-in-perpetuity/615882/12 "2012-03-18T21:02:23Z")
In our state, certain legislative records (basically proposals for legislation that never got to the introduction stage) are retained in perpetuity, and can only be accessed by legislators or legislative staff. The are never opened to the public. Proposals to open these records after, say, fifty years have so far gone nowhere. ---
**Author:** ![Jim\_s\_Son](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19adc/32.png) [@Jim\_s\_Son](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jim_s_Son)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2012, 9:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-us-government-files-being-sealed-in-perpetuity/615882/13 "2012-03-19T09:34:28Z")
I remember seeing Senator Barry Goldwater on television in 1971 after the Pentagon papers were released. While he denounced Daniel Ellsberg and the New York Times for publishing, he did say the government kept too many papers secret. He said that Pentagon officials had told him that there were still papers from Custer’s Last Stand (1876) still classified.