Supreme Court Rejects Appeal From Times Reporter Over Refusal to Identify Source

The Supreme Court has turned down an appeal from James Risen, a reporter for The New York Times facing jail for refusing to identify a confidential source.

The court’s one-line order gave no reasons but effectively sided with the government in a confrontation between what prosecutors said was an imperative to secure evidence in a national security prosecution and what journalists said was an intolerable infringement of press freedom.

The United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, in Richmond (VA), ordered Risen to comply with the subpoena. Risen has said he will refuse. “I will continue to fight,” Risen said.

His lawyer, Joel Kurtzberg, urged the Justice Department to hold its fire. “The ball is now in the government’s court,” Kurtzberg wrote. “The government can choose not to pursue Mr. Risen’s testimony if it wants to. We can only hope now that the government will not seek to have him held in contempt for doing nothing more than reporting the news and keeping his promises” to his sources.