President Donald Trump asked senior staff members to sign nondisclosure agreements prohibiting them from revealing non-public information during and after their government service. The American Civil Liberties Union asserts that the agreements are not enforceable since government operations are of public concern. The public should know about the inner workings of a presidential administration to ensure accountability. Even if not enforced, the agreements could chill expression of information and opinions vital to understanding how governments make decisions and form policy. (ACLU, March 20, 2018, by Esha Bhandari)
Although staff members are not Trump’s personal employees, if breached the agreement reportedly stipulated considerable monetary damages. The agreements do not seem to have much effect on leaks as the leaks continued unabated in February and March of 2017 after the agreements were put in place. (New York Magazine, March 19, 2018, by Margaret Hartmann)
Besides the First Amendment objections to the agreements, it is not clear who is responsible for agreements on the side of the employer, Trump, the office of the president, the federal government? (The Weekly Standard, March 19, 2018, by Michael Warren)