In the United States v. Reynolds et al., 1952, the U.S. Supreme Court established the state secrets privilege in a case involving the crash of a military aircraft during testing. The widows of three civilian engineers who died in the accident sued for negligence and sought production of Air Force's accident investigation report and statements made by surviving crew members during an official inquiry into the crash. The government refused to produce these documents claiming that they contained classified information about secret electronic equipment and mission details which could not be disclosed without seriously hampering national security, curtailing scientific research, and causing grave damage to significant diplomatic relations with other nations. The court ruled in favor of government stating that there was a reasonable danger that disclosing such information would expose military matters beyond permissible limits thus establishing "state secrets" as an absolute privilege against any discovery or disclosure.

In the dissenting opinion for United States v. Reynolds et al., Justice Black disagreed with the majority's decision to uphold a claim of executive privilege in refusing to produce Air Force records in a civil suit. He argued that this set a dangerous precedent, allowing government officials to withhold information from courts without any checks or balances. According to him, it was not within the Court’s purview to decide whether national security would be compromised by releasing certain documents; instead, he believed that such decisions should be left entirely up to Congress and President as they are directly accountable for their actions through elections. Furthermore, he expressed concern over potential misuse of this power by future administrations who might invoke 'national security' as an excuse for withholding evidence which could expose official misconduct or incompetence.