The US' top court on Monday increased the likelihood of jail time for two reporters, refusing to take up a case that pits the news media's promise to protect confidential sources against a demand for information in a court case.
The Supreme Court justices' decision not to intervene leaves reporters Judith Miller of the New York Times and Matthew Cooper of Time magazine in contempt of court for refusing to reveal their sources in a leak probe involving CIA officer Valerie Plame. Each reporter faces up to 18 months in jail.
Officials in the Bush administration leaked Plame's identity after her husband, former Ambassador Joe Wilson, publicly undercut the president's rationale for invading Iraq.
Special counsel Patrick Fitzgerald said he looks forward to wrapping up the investigation while Time said the magazine would raise additional legal issues to a federal judge on Cooper's behalf. Times publisher Arthur Sulzberger said it was shocking that Miller faces a prison sentence for doing routine newsgathering on an important public issue and keeping her word to her sources, while not even writing a story.
Miller said journalists "simply cannot do their jobs without being able to commit to sources that they won't be identified."
The Newspaper Association of America called on Congress to enact shield legislation that would protect reporters from having to disclose confidential sources.
Plame's name was first made public in 2003 by conservative columnist Robert Novak, who cited unidentified senior Bush administration officials as his sources for the information. There has been no public explanation for why prosecutors are not pursuing Novak.
The column appeared after Plame's husband wrote a newspaper opinion piece criticizing the Bush administration's claim that Iraq sought uranium in Niger.
Disclosure of an undercover intelligence officer's identity can be a federal crime. Fitzgerald says his only unfinished business is testimony from Cooper and Miller.
A federal judge held the reporters in contempt last fall, and an appeals court rejected their argument that the Constitution shielded them from revealing their sources.
Every state but Wyoming recognizes some level of protection for reporters to keep their sources' identities confidential.
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