Word: branzburg
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...acknowledge that the panel which handed down this ruling was bound by previous precedent, in particular a 1972 case, Branzburg v. Hayes, in which a reporter witnessed two individuals “synthesizing hashish from marihuana [sic].” We are no legal experts, but both Branzburg, and the two cases the Court cited in its decision to deny Branzburg his petition to quash a subpoena, involved a reporter offering confidentiality in order to observe criminal acts. Irrespective of the propriety of this precedent, the cases seem to be utterly and completely different; Cooper and Miller were gathering facts...
...Branzburg vs. Hayes (1972). A reporter has no right to withhold information about his sources from a grand jury in a criminal investigation. The court was unmoved by the contention that confidential sources will dry up if reporters can be compelled to reveal them...
...contempt for refusing to turn over to the defendant his notes at a murder trial. And it refused to review a U.S. Court of Appeals ruling that allowed Government investigators access to the telephone company's records of phone numbers called by journalists. Both cases, along with Branzburg, make it more difficult for reporters to preserve the confidentiality of sources...
...high court's decision not to review that ruling does not affect similar cases in other states, but it leaves reporters everywhere guessing about the risk of fighting subpoenas. In Branzburg vs. Hayes (1972), the leading pronouncement on the subject, the Justices ruled 5 to 4 that reporters could not refuse to testify before a grand jury. The court did suggest, however, that states could enact "shield" laws to protect a reporter's sources and notes. New Jersey and 25 other states have them. In Farber's case, the New Jersey Supreme Court decided that the shield...
...flood did not actually begin with Farber, but with the Supreme Court's 1972 ruling in Branzburg vs. Hayes that reporters could be compelled to testify before grand juries. Many journalists argue that Branzburg and a few later decisions are proof of a growing judicial-and perhaps public-hostility toward the press, and fear that prosecutors and defense attorneys are exploiting that mood...