Rather - so much for freedom of the press.
Supreme Court Rejects Reporter's Privilege Case, As NYT Reporter Faces Jail for Protecting His Source
June 2, 2014
By Trevor Timm
The Supreme Court today rejected New York Times reporter James Risen's appeal of a 4th Circuit decision that ruled the government can compel him to reveal his source under oath. The case, one of the most important for reporter's privilege in decades, means that Risen has exhausted his appeals and must now either testify in the leak trial of former CIA officer Jeffrey Sterling, or face jail time for being in contempt of court. Risen has admirably vowed to go to prison rather than comply.
This is the latest victory of the Obama administration in their crackdown on sources, and in turn, investigative journalism. As the New York Times again reminded us today, they have "pursued leaks aggressively, bringing criminal charges in eight cases, compared with three under all previous administrations combined."
Make no mistake, this case is a direct attack on the press. The Justice Department has recently tightened its "guidelines" for subpoenaing reporters (which have no enforcement mechanism) and the Obama administration claims it supports a tepid journalist shield law, but this was the case where they could have shown they meant what they said about protecting journalists' rights.
Instead, they argued to the court that reporter's privilege does not exist all, even comparing journalists who invoke the privilege to criminals who have recieved drugs.
By going after Risen, the Obama administration has done more damage to reporter's privilege than any other case in forty years, including the Valerie Plame leak investigation that ensnared Judy Miller during the Bush administration. The Fourth Circuit is where many national security reporters live and work, and by eviscerating the privilege there, the government has made national security reporting that much harder in an age where there has already been an explosion in use of surveillance to root out sources of journalists.
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https://pressfreedomfoundation.org/blog/2014/06/supreme-court-rejects-reporters-privilege-case-nyt-reporter-faces-jail-protecting-his
With a constitutional scholar like President Obama, who needs a Constitution?
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