Journalists' Rights Tracker

A federal appeals court on Monday said it would review a lower-court decision that ruled the government was not entitled to see telephone records of two reporters who talked with confidential sources after the 2001 terrorist attacks.

Judge Robert D. Sack of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the ruling deserved another look because, if upheld, it would set a nationwide precedent.

The government had sought 20 days' worth of phone calls by New York Times journalists Judith Miller and Philip Shenon in the fall of 2001, when the reporters had hundreds of conversations with dozens of confidential sources.

Federal officials said the records were needed for a grand jury investigation of government leaks in Illinois. But the Times sued in 2004, asking the lower court to order the government to stop its pursuit of the records.

Judge Robert Sweet agreed, ruling last year that the Justice Department had failed to prove it could not conduct the probe without the phone calls. [...]

In his ruling, Sweet said the records should be off-limits to the government because the reporters were gathering information "of paramount national importance" about terrorism preparedness and efforts to combat al-Qaida. He also said it was likely that whistle-blowing would decrease if courts hindered journalists' ability to gather news.