New York Times turns to Supreme Court [leak investigation about a terrorism-funding probe......]

Yahoo ^

[Sub-Driver]

New York Times turns to Supreme Court

2 hours, 47 minutes ago

The New York Times asked the Supreme Court on Friday to block the government from reviewing the phone records of two reporters in a leak investigation about a terrorism-funding probe.

The case involved stories written in 2001 by Times reporters Judith Miller and Philip Shenon that revealed the government's plans to freeze the assets of two Islamic charities, the Holy Land Foundation and the Global Relief Foundation.

In a 2-1 decision, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said federal prosecutors can see the phone records of Shenon and Miller. Miller retired from the Times a year ago.

The Times wants Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg to block temporarily the government from going through the records so that the newspaper can prepare a petition arguing why the justices should step into the case. Ginsburg asked the Justice Department for a response.

A federal judge had ruled that the records were off limits unless prosecutors could show they had exhausted all other means of finding out who spoke to the newspaper.

The appeals court said a grand jury investigation of the disclosures wasn't likely to go anywhere without help from the reporters or access to their records.

In papers filed with the Supreme Court, the Times said when confidential sources confirmed that the assets of two charities would be frozen, Shenon and Miller called the two organizations for comment.

[potlatch]

This is a very impressive post devolve!

[xsysmgr]

Out of curiosity, are they justice shopping, or is there some jurisdictional reason why Ginsburg would get this case?

Each Justice is assigned one or more (9 Justices, 13 Circuits) Judicial Circuits to oversee. Justice Ginsberg oversees the 2nd Circuit which is the Districts of Connecticut and Vermont and all 4 Districts of New York.