[MeanWestTexan]

Good. There is no such thing as a "journalistic privilege to refuse to disclose source."

Never existed under the law or common law.

It is an invention of the liberal media and Carter-era appointees to the federal courts.

It needs to go.

[Mo1]

FYI Ping

[gopwinsin04]

Will Jeff Gannon appear in costume?

[rface]

well, this sounds like something important.

[funkywbr]

I can't wait for Joe Wilson to get his just rewards for outting his wife.

[1Old Pro]

This whole case bothered me from the get-go. I'd like to find out who the leaker was because of the fact that they used this story to get Bush.

[thoughtomator]

Mark your calendar - we may finally, for once, get some morsel of truth out of an MSM journo.

[cyncooper]

"We agree with the District Court that there is no First Amendment privilege protecting the information sought," Judge David B. Sentelle said in the ruling, which was unanimous.

Other statements from Fitzgerald (the prosecutor) indicate they have other information going to what they know these reporters will testify to.

[Steve_Seattle]

Following this story has been a tremendous lesson in delayed gratification; you know the end of the story will be very interesting and unpredictable, and it is torture to have to wait this long.

[sully777]

Re: The three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit sided with prosecutors in their attempt to compel Time magazine's Matthew Cooper and The New York Times' Judith Miller to testify before a federal grand jury about their confidential sources. "We agree with the District Court that there is no First Amendment privilege protecting the information sought," Judge David B. Sentelle said in the ruling, which was unanimous.

---

Shades of Sidney Lumet's early 80's drama Absence of Malice, starring Paul Newman and Sally Field.

IIRC, Wilford Brimley drills Sally Field (playing a hungry journalist that just ruined Paul Newman's life and caused his sister to commit suicide) and her Miami Herald fat cat newspaper lawyer: "Don't tell me you have a constitutional privaledge to protect sources. Because you and I know there is no such passage in the Constitution saying that..."

[OXENinFLA]

OPINION (IN RE: GRAND JURY)


A federal appeals court rules that New York Times reporter Judith Miller and Time reporter Matthew Cooper lack any First Amendment privilege to prevent them from testifying before a federal grand jury about their confidential sources in the investigation over an apparent leak within the Bush administration over former covert CIA agent Valerie Plame's identity.

http://news.findlaw.com/hdocs/docs/plame/inregjmiller21505opn.pdf

The Plame Leak Investigation: Background Materials
http://news.findlaw.com/legalnews/lit/iraq/documents.html

The First Amendment
http://supreme.lp.findlaw.com/constitution/amendment01/index.


Attorneys For Reporters Judith Miller And Matthew Cooper:

Floyd Abrams
http://pview.findlaw.com/view/1951448_1

Joel Kurtzberg
http://pview.findlaw.com/view/2715483_1

Donald J. Mulvihill
http://pview.findlaw.com/view/2582003_1

[papasmurf]

yeah, yipee, hoo-rah!!!


Odd, I was just, this morn, aruging this very issue with a friend...damn liberal..he lost!
:O)

P

[evad]

Who's next???

Paging Mr. Novak.

[FreedomPoster]

Are you still keeping up with this one? I think it might yet get interesting, in a "MSM leaking information about a CIA operative to attempt to setup President Bush" way.

[SuziQ]

Disclosure of an undercover intelligence officer's identity can be a federal crime if prosecutors can show the leak was intentional and the person who released that information knew of the officer's secret status.

According to stories I've read, at the time of the article, she wasn't 'undercover' and there were folks in DC who already knew who she was and what she did for the CIA.