government free reign on RSA -- from whence?

[ld231782@longs.lance.colostate.edu]

This is driving me crazy. I have asked many people that refer to the
U.S. government's free reign on the use of patents in general and RSA
technology in particular. There are a lot of very respectable and
reputable specialists on this list and I hope they can answer my question.

What *specifically* gives the government the *right* to use patents
developed `with public money' without licensing, or the RSA patent in
particular (if the two are not the same)?

Court precedents? A specific law? `congressional hearings'?  A
condition of agreement to receive NSF funds?

>what< ?

This little tidbit of information has gotten tossed around so
frequently and haphazardly (a bit like an Urban Legend) and it really
deserves some sharp scrutiny, at least a bit more than I have ever
seen, I suspect it might have some interesting implications to consider.