In Greene v. McElroy, 360 U.S. 474 (1959), an employee was discharged from his private employment after losing his federal security clearance. In order to protect the anonymity of government informers in the name of national security, a defense department regulation denied the employee an opportunity to cross-examine witnesses whose testimony was used to support the revocation of his security clearance. In Greene v. McElroy, an aeronautical engineer for a private defense contractor lost his job after the defense department revoked his security clearance based on confidential reports that were never made available to him. "These reports apparently were compilations of statements taken from various persons contacted by an investigatory agency. The engineer had no opportunity to confront and question persons whose statements reflected adversely on him or to confront the government investigators who took their statements." (Id. at p. 479.) The United States Supreme Court held that "in the absence of explicit authorization from either the President or Congress the government was not empowered to deprive the engineer of his job in a proceeding in which he was not afforded the safeguards of confrontation and cross-examination." (Id. at p. 508.) Although the court invalidated the departmental regulation for lack of explicit statutory authority, it expressed its concern over the constitutionality of the regulation by stating that where administrative action raises serious constitutional problems, the court must assume that those affected by the governmental action were intended to be afforded the traditional safeguards of due process. ( Id. , at pp. 506-507.)