I was delighted to see that a bipartisan group of attorneys general from the states and the District of Columbia have filed a brief to the Supreme Court asking them to take the case that I’ve brought to the high court. Right now, I’m fighting a subpoena from the special prosecutor in the Valerie Plame case who would like me to reveal confidential sources for a piece I coauthored in 2003. My piece didn’t out Valerie Plame, a CIA operative. Robert Novak, the columnist, had done that some days earlier. But my piece took note of the leaking, which may have constituted a crime, and suggested it was widespread. As you’ll recall, Plame’s husband, Joseph Wilson, had written an op-ed for the New York Times questioning one of the administration’s rationales for going to war in Iraq--namely, that Saddam Hussein had sought to acquire a kind of uranium ore in Africa. For over a year, with the exceptionally generous backing of my employer, Time, Inc, I’ve been fighting this subpoena in court and now we’ve asked the Supreme Court to take the case. The attorneys general didn’t weigh the merits of my case but they did agree that the court should take it.
A lot of people were surprised when the Attorneys General stepped in. But if you look at the legal landscape, it’s less surprising. Forty-nine states offer some form of legal protection for journalists who are protecting confidential sources--giving them a privilege akin to that afforded doctors and patients, clergymen and parishoners, and groups as disparate as licensed social workers. As the chief law enforcement officer in their states, the attorneys general know that these protections work well and are totally compatible with law enforcement. But my case is in FEDERAL court and the courts have been divided about whether there’s protection under federal law. The attorneys general argued that in the absence of a federal privilege, the state laws essentially could be rendered moot. My hope is that the Supreme Court will take my case and sort out the confusion.
The bipartisan consesus extends to Congress. Right now, Congress is considering adopting a federal shield law that would allow journalists a degree of protection in keeping their confidences to sources. It, too, is bipartisan, sponsored by Sen. Richard Lugar and Rep. Mike Pence, both Indiana Republicans with many Democratic and Republican cosponsors. This is not a left-right issue. It’s about whether citizens can get the information they need in order to be able to rule themselves.