Reading Room Document

Contemplated release by the Selective Service System of names and addresses of registrants and next of kin to the Special Action Office for Drug Prevention for use in two major drug abuse research projects

In this memo, the OLC responded to an inquiry regarding the Selective Service System’s ability to release registrants’ information––names, addresses and next of kin––to another government agency that was conducting drug abuse research. Two provisions of the Federal Reports Act were potentially relevant: a general prohibition on federal agencies from releasing confidential information to other federal agencies, 44 U.S.C. §3508(b), and a clause that permitted agencies to release non-confidential information to other agencies, §3508(b)(2). Because a Selective Service regulation reserved discretion for the director to release any information contained in a registrant’s file to any person, the OLC concluded that the scope of confidentiality turned on the Director’s discretion, and that the release of information would not violate §3508(b).

January 31, 1974