—the court ordered an alleged privileged report by a Navy Board of Investigation produced as not within common law privilege: "In the absence of a showing of a war secret, or secret in respect to munitions of war, or any secret appliance used by the armed forces or any threat to the national security."

Wigmore on Evidence (McNaughton Rev. 1961) § 2378, p. 792) or to official communications (Code Civ. Proc., § 1881, subd. 5), the government may often be required to disclose the material which is claimed to be privileged to the judge for perusal in camera in bearing the burden of persuading the judge that disclosure would be harmful to the government

—in FTCA suit arising out of crash of Navy plane, district court conducted ex parte, in camera review of the accident report to ensure it contained nothing that would "reveal a military secret or subject the United States and its armed forces to any peril by reason of complete revelation" before granting motion to compel production

Seaborg, 72 plaintiffs challenged the adequacy of an environmental impact statement prepared by the Atomic Energy Commission pursuant to the National Environmental Steel Co., 199 F. 353 (ED Pa. 1912). But

—allowing discovery in the absence of a showing that evidence involved a war secret or any threat to national security

—the plaintiff sought the report of the Navy Board of Investigation into an airplane that crashed, killing the plaintiff' s intestate.

—the plaintiff directed the government to produce for inspection and copying the record or report of the investigation conducted by the Navy Board of Investigation of an air crash in Bayside, Long Island, resulting in the death of a private citizen.

This note will not discuss release of CAB/NTSB records in those cases in which the Federal Government is a party to the litigation, since the courts have ruled that non-privileged records are discoverable as against any private party in such actions.

Subsequent decisions indicated a trend toward executive absolutism, at least in the area of military secrets

When the Secretary of the Air Force lodged his formal “Claim of Privilege,” he attempted therein to invoke the privilege against revealing military secrets, a privilege which is well established in the law of evidence

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