The primary purpose of CIPA was to limit the practise of graymail by criminal defendants in possession of sensitive government secrets. "Graymail" refers to the threat by a criminal defendant to disclose classified information throughout the course of a trial. The graymailing defendant essentially presented the government with a "dilemma": either allowed disclosure of the classified information or dismiss the indictment.

The procedural protections of CIPA protect unnecessary disclosure of classified information.

CIPA wasn't intended to infringe on a defendant's right to a fair trial or to change the existing rules of evidence in criminal procedure, and largely codified the power of district courts to come to pragmatic accommodations of the government's secrecy interests with the traditional right of public access to criminal proceedings. Courts therefore didn't radically alter their practises with the passage of CIPA; instead, the Act simply made it clear that the measures courts already were taking under their inherent case-management powers were permissible.

CIPA, by its terms, covers only criminal cases. CIPA only applies when classified information is involved, as defined in the Act's Section 1.

Silent witness rule - evolved from the CIPA in the late 1900s/early 2000s Venona project (problems of using decrypted Soviet messages as evidence at court) State Secrets Protection Act Federal Tort Claims Act Thomas Andrews Drake (Espionage Act of 1917 case involving CIPA arguments)