People find this stuff, it gets leaked eventually, with a law against it in place stopping it legally is a lot easier.
> Will legislatures once again retroactively protect those who violated the ban?
Most likely but it's a lot harder to do that once the law is in place.
But my point is that government agencies can and do ignore these kinds of bans. Will passing new laws make any difference? Particularly if no one is held accountable, which is invariably the case.
But one thing that really stuck in my craw is how the military intelligence Chelsea Manning had access to later on was accessible by thousands of people, and there are very few who have followed her example. Similar with Snowden, except that much fewer people had his kind of access.
Pictures: https://duckduckgo.com/?q=manhattan+project+signage&t=ffab&i...