# Executive Order 13526 **Status: stub — expand.** **Classified National Security Information**, signed 29 December 2009. It is the operating manual for the federal classification system: who may classify, under what test, in which of eight substantive categories, at which of three levels, for how long, and by which of four routes classified information gets out again. It is **not the source of the authority it describes.** In [[Department of the Navy v. Egan]] the Supreme Court located the President's authority over national security information in Article II, which makes this order the President's own description of a power already held — and therefore, on one reading, a self-imposed procedure that the President may set aside. Whether any of the order's clocks and forms bind the President is contested and unresolved. ## The sections that get cited | Section | Subject | |---|---| | 1.1–1.9 | Original classification: standards, levels, authority, categories, duration, marking, prohibitions, challenges | | 2.1–2.2 | Derivative classification and classification guides | | 3.1–3.7 | Authority to declassify, automatic declassification at 25 years, systematic review, mandatory review, the National Declassification Center | | 5.2–5.5 | ISOO, ISCAP, general responsibilities, sanctions | ## See also - [[How Information Is Classified and Declassified]] — the whole order as a process map - [[Information Security Oversight Office]] · [[Interagency Security Classification Appeals Panel]] · [[National Declassification Center]] - [[Department of the Navy v. Egan]] · [[Freedom of Information Act]] · [[Presidential Records Act]] - [[How an Executive Order Is Issued and Challenged]]