Supreme Court Rejects NY Times On Leak Probe

Posted on November 27, 2006

The Supreme Court ruled against The New York Times on Monday, refusing to block the government from reviewing the phone records of two Times reporters in a leak investigation of a terrorism-funding probe.

The one-sentence order came in a First Amendment battle that involves stories written in 2001 by Times reporters Judith Miller and Philip Shenon revealing the government’s plans to freeze the assets of two Islamic charities, the Holy Land Foundation and the Global Relief Foundation.

Shenon and Miller called the two organizations for comment after being told by confidential sources of the government’s plans.

The Justice Department says the move tipped off the charities of planned government raids. The federal judge who ruled in the Times’ favor said there is no evidence in the case even suggesting that the reporters tipped off the charities about the raids or that the reporters even knew of the government’s plans to raid either charity.

The government says that the fact that the reporters relayed disclosures from a government source to “targets of an imminent law enforcement action substantially weakens any claim of freedom of the press.”

A wise ruling in the benefit for National Security. One can only hope that this ruling will make the NY Times and other MSM sources think twice before revealing classified information and tipping off terror-funding front groups. Sadly, it will probably only make them more careful about it. Hopefully we will see some heads roll on this one.

I have to wonder if Ginsburg was sleeping again for this ruling.

Atlass Shrugs:

Woo Hoo! A victory for the good guys.

Michelle Malkin:

Message to blabbermouths: You are not above the law, no matter how ostentatiously you wrap yourselves in the First Amendment.

Others: SCOTUS Blog
Strata-Sphere
NY Times on itself

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» Filed Under Illegal Activities, News, War On Terror

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Comments

2 Responses to “Supreme Court Rejects NY Times On Leak Probe”

Ogre on November 27th, 2006 4:57 pm

And a shocking ruling. I bet the Times will completely ignore the ruling until the entire Supreme Court rules on it.
Nazareth on November 27th, 2006 10:51 pm

One small leap for man- One GIANT victory for all mankind! Yay on them for showing some backbone and standing up to the terror propogandists! Errr I mean the New York Times. http://sacredscoop.com