Intelligence Constraints of the 1970s and Domestic Terrorism

This Note presents a selective survey of legal and administrative regulatory constraints on the collection, maintenance, use, and dissemination of information pertaining to domestic security during the 1970s. The author discusses five aspects of domestic security investigations: initiation, kinds of information gathered, techniques of information gathering, handling of information, and reporting and control of investigations. He then discusses constraints on the kinds of information gathered, including direct investigatory controls, first amendment protections, privacy protections, statutory law, and California case law. Subjects also looked at in depth include regulation of techniques of information gathering, constraints on the handling of intelligence information, and reporting and control of security investigations. The author concludes that regulatory constraints on intelligence derived from domestic security investigations grew steadily throughout the 1970s and there was a concomitant growth in uncertainty about the scope of these constraints.