By Walter Pincus
The Washington Post
Sept. 24, 2006
Excerpt:
The Senate Judiciary Committee has
postponed consideration of a federal shield law for journalists after
hearing strong new objections to the measure from the Justice
Department.
The postponement all but guarantees that there will be no Senate action
on the measure until Congress returns after the November elections.
Even then, passage of the legislation is doubtful given powerful
opposition in the House and from the Bush administration, according to
congressional aides and non-government supporters of the measure.
One focus of administration opposition is a provision that would
require the Justice Department, to obtain a journalist's testimony
about sources of a leak of national security information, to convince a
judge that the disclosure caused more harm to the government than
benefit to the public. The judge would have to weigh the possible
danger to national security against the public's right to know the
information.
Under current law, no such balancing test is administered by a judge.
Instead, a journalist who is subpoenaed to give up the source of such a
national security leak has no protection unless he can prove the
government's request is unreasonable or a form of harassment.
