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Two years ago, we sued [ [link removed] ] a state government agency in Utah that administers tens of millions [ [link removed] ] of dollars in subsidies for Northrop Grumman, a defense department contractor that is manufacturing hundreds of intercontinental ballistic missiles for nuclear warheads in the state. The government offers those subsidies, they say, in order to create thousands of good jobs for Utahns. So I asked for the paper trail. I requested pretty run-of-the-mill public records — a full copy of their economic contract and performance reports for the deal for Sentinel missile production. They stonewalled me, lawyered up, and have been fighting us in court for two years.
Northrop Grumman and their allies in the state government have made a variety of arguments over the past two years. Astonishingly, in their most recent court filings, attorneys for the Governor’s Office of Economic Opportunity and Northrop Grumman made a curious argument.
In effect, they said that releasing the information we are seeking — records on whether they employ as many people as they publicly claim to, records which are filed with bureaucrats at the state Department of Workforce Services — literally puts the security of the nuclear enterprise risk.
Here’s what they told the judge:
In this case, the services performed by Northrop Grumman for the U.S. Department of Defense involve national defense programs, and the records held by GOEO are related to these governmental programs. Specifically, the U.S. Strategic Command’s GBSD (now Sentinel) program. The disclosure of the requested information could be used to undermine efforts of the United States to defend itself and advance legitimate national goals including an “increased risk of attacks on Northrop Grumman’s computer and information systems, and increased jeopardy to government programs”...
They also told us that releasing the information we are seeking could end Utah’s entire program of state corporate subsidies:
“Additionally, because of competition between Utah and other states for economic development from businesses such as Northrop Grumman, if these protected records were ordered to be disclosed, for eventual public disclosure on Inkstick’s blog, then businesses would not want to contract with GOEO or provide any records to GOEO. This would completely frustrate and end the tax incentive program under Title 63N, the Economic Opportunity Act.”
We think our journalism is impactful — see, for example, the growing calls [ [link removed] ] for the Utah-based Mormon church to take a stance against the missile mentioned above and divest [ [link removed] ] from weapons manufacturers, spurred in part by our exposé [ [link removed] ]. But we really don’t think it will jeopardize the safety of the United States’ nuclear arsenal or tank the Utah economy.
Inkstick’s Substack is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
We appreciate your readership and that you care about this type of journalism, covering the people and places tied up in the soon-to-be $1 trillion defense budget.
If, like Northrop Grumman and their allies in the Utah state government, you think our reporting is highly impactful, please consider a donation during our annual NewsMatch fundraising campaign. Like all nonprofit media outlets, Inkstick relies on reader support to do its work. If you pledge support today, though, it will count as double — the annual NewsMatch campaign will match your donation. In other words, your $100 contribution will get Inkstick $200, and your $500 will give our nonprofit newsroom $1,000.
With Thanks,
Taylor Barnes, field reporter

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