Re: subpoenas of personal papers

[greg@ideath.goldenbear.com (Greg Broiles)]

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Chris Knight <uunet!crl.com!cknight> writes:

> [quoting Phil Karn]
> > There was a flurry of laws during the 1970s that extended somewhat
> > similar privileges to reporters and their sources, but they don't seem
> > to have held up very well since the Big Lurch to the Right.
> 
> As I mentioned in the second paragraph of my original letter (The one you 
> didn't quote in your reply), I stated that those cases didn't hold 
> against reporters because of constutional backing (i.e.  Freedom of the 
> Press).  A protection which we do not have, unless you happen to publish.

That constitutional backing is of questionable value - Rik Scarce (author
of the book "Ecowarriors") recently spent months in jail in Washington
State for refusing to reveal, to a federal grand jury, the whereabouts
of a person he interviewed for a book about animal rights activists. He
was released because a federal appellate court was convinced that holding
him longer wouldn't make him reveal the information sought.


- --
Greg Broiles                   "Sometimes you're the windshield,
greg@goldenbear.com             sometimes you're the bug." -- Mark Knopfler


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