The long awaited JFK ARC releases finally came on 18 March 2025. Unfortunately, they came with a price. Along with releasing all the names, places and details previously redacted in the collection, the Trump administration decided to release the social security numbers of hundreds of people still living. I have written about this issue on this blog more than once. I will try one last time to explain why this is such a bad, bad, decision.
As time goes by, social security numbers have become more and more important pieces of personal identification in the United States. Created by the government, required by the government for taxes and retirement, and utilized by the government for all manner of services and functions, the government has an obligation to protect social security numbers. It does not have an obligation to publish them at the National Archives under the white heat of publicity and national headlines.
The harm to the individuals is obvious. Of course they may seek compensation after financial losses, or worse, have occurred, but what kind of consolation is that? What justification can there be for such a grotesque abuse of executive power?
The justification is sometimes said to be that the Congressmen who drafted the JFK Act, the law establishing the JFK Collection and governing the release of the information in the Collection, failed to put a clause in the law forbidding the release of the SSNs of living persons. Therefore, the release of living persons’ social security numbers is required. What Orwellian reasoning!
The consequence of this decision is that the SSNs of hundreds of people are now public. Were these people dark, shadowy figures, wearing cloaks and carrying daggers, up to their necks in consiratorial plotting? As a matter of fact, they were the staff members of the Church Committee, the House Select Committee on Assassination, and the Assassination Records Review Board, hired to investigate the JFK assassination and a whole array of government abuses. As part of their work, they were required to provide their SSNs in order to receive clearance to access the classified information their work involved.
Is it now in the national interest to release the SSNs of those who investigated assassinations and government abuse? It is not. Such a decision serves only to harm individuals, and to damage the cause of transparency in government. This is not transparency. It is merely political expediency.