US - Court OK's Look at Times' Phone Records

About time.

One judge dissented and here's what he said:

"Without such protection," Sack wrote, "prosecutors, limited only by their own self-restraint, could obtain records that identify journalists' confidential sources in gross and virtually at will.

"Reporters might find themselves, as a matter of practical necessity, contacting sources the way I understand drug dealers reach theirs _ by use of clandestine cell phones and meetings in darkened doorways."

Sure judge, let's just make it easier for them to contact criminals. Look at what the trial is about.

Federal prosecutors investigating a leak about a terrorism funding probe can see the phone records of two New York Times reporters, a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday. [...]

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.

Prosecutors claimed the reporters' phone calls to the charities seeking comment had tipped the organizations off about the government investigation.

Judith Miller's name ring a bell?

Fitzgerald had Miller jailed last year for refusing to tell a grand jury about conversations she had with the vice president's chief of staff regarding CIA operative Valerie Plame.

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