Thread by @bgzimmer

Just in time for the release of the Mueller report, my latest @WSJ column is on the shifting meaning of "redaction," from organizing text to editing to concealing sensitive information. bit.ly/redactbz

Here's more detail (as requested by @joshtpm et al) about how "redaction" changed from mere editing to concealing sensitive info in a public document. A lot of the early "redaction" action was in the New York court system, as seen in appeals court opinions in the '50s and '60s.

Examples of "redacted" usage from New York appeals courts start in 1957 (as noted by @OED) in People v Lombard, 4 A.D.2d 666: "Feasible means should have been adopted to redact De Gennaro's confession and admissions..." Unclear how that redaction was done. casetext.com/case/people-v-…

A 1962 opinion (People v. Robinson, 16 A.D.2d 184) says that "the statement of the appellant, Robinson, taken by the District Attorney on the morning of April 22 should have been redacted so as to eliminate therefrom references to the codefendants." casetext.com/case/people-v-…

There are several additional New York appellate court opinions in the mid-'60s discussing trial courts "redacting" statements to remove defendants' names or other prejudicial info, but the mechanics of the redaction still aren't specified.

Things get clearer in 1967 (People v. Burrelle, 21 N.Y.2d 265): "The statements and confessions of the various defendants were redacted by use of the letter X wherever another of the defendants was referred to, whether by their proper name or by nickname."
casetext.com/case/people-v-…

Different letters were used to redact names in a 1968 case (People v. Jackson, 22 N.Y.2d 446): "The district attorney used the letter 'W' for Bruton, 'X' for Jackson and 'Y' for Peterson... this attempted redaction proved a monumental failure."
casetext.com/case/people-v-…

In another 1968 case (People v. Baker, 23 N.Y.2d 307), the appeals court's opinion questioned "the adequacy of the redaction of the written statements" in a case where defendants' names were redacted by replacing them with X's. casetext.com/case/people-v-…

One New York case got appealed to SCOTUS in 1968 (Bruton v. United States, 391 U.S. 123). A footnote quotes a 1967 law review article: "Where the confession is offered in evidence by means of oral testimony, redaction is patently impractical." casetext.com/case/bruton-v-…

So far in the New York cases, redaction was evidently done in a rudimentary way with a letter-substitution method. In a 1973 opinion (In re Biaggi, 478 F.2d 489 2d Cir.), grand jury testimony from a 1971 case was redacted by means of "blanked‐out names." casetext.com/case/in-re-bia…

The redacted grand jury testimony from 1973 was from Rep. Mario A. Biaggi, who was running for mayor of New York. The released testimony, redactions and all, showed that Biaggi had refused to testify, which killed his chances in the mayoral primary. cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/03/27/new…

From a Washington Post article from Dec. 19, 1978: "The lawyers voiced special opposition yesterday to a government request that they return their clients' grand jury testimony to be 'redacted' -- censored -- of material containing 'sensitive compartmented information (SCI).'"

CIA-style "redaction" -- concealing sensitive info in a publicly disclosed document with blacked-out lines of text -- doesn't really emerge in the public eye until the '80s, as in this 1985 article about the trial of CIA agent Ron Rewald on fraud charges. newspapers.com/clip/30718972/…

A big boost in the prominence of "redaction" happened in the 1988 Iran-Contra hearings when Oliver North's notes on his covert activities were released by North and his lawyers in heavily redacted form. newspapers.com/clip/30718993/…

In a column from April 1988, Mary McGrory wrote about Oliver North's notebooks and explained to her readers that "redacted" was "a new word that has replaced 'censored.'" newspapers.com/clip/30722012/…

William Safire covered the new sense of "redaction" in his entry on "CIA-ese" in "Safire's Political Dictionary": "a blackening-out material that calls attention to its excision." books.google.com/books?id=q6ARD…

That about covers it! Thanks for reading, and check out my @WSJ column for more. cc @joshtpm bit.ly/redactbz

Ooh, missed this good one from 1978, about the FBI break-in case discussed in that Washington Post article. The Associated Press reported: "The term 'redact' has been adopted by the Government and in this context means censorship of classified material." nytimes.com/1978/12/19/arc…

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