So long as the set of such legitimate bases for denial is publicly discussed and procedural checks are in place, there is no reason to believe that publicizing such a maxim will be self-frustrating in the presence of a real public, nor that such a maxim should be rejected by an ideal public. Admittedly, the Glomar doctrine embodies some extent of “meta-secrecy”. However, it does not go as far as a meta-secrecy of the kind that Sidgwick favors. For the very possibility that a state may sometimes act on secret grounds is not publicly denied, nor are the grounds for justifiable Glomar responses necessarily left outside the sphere of public discussion.[16]