Plame Leak Case Could End in Supreme Court Standoff

The recent pressure on reporters to reveal sources in the Valerie Plame investigation could end in a U.S Supreme Court standoff, according to two leading First Amendment attorneys, one of whom fears several leading Washington reporters could wind up in jail before it's over.

"I think we are headed for a showdown and it would not surprise me in the least to see half a dozen reporters sitting in a jail in D.C.," said Lucy Dalglish, executive director of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, which monitors such cases. She believes Time magazine and other media outlets "will be willing to take this all the way to the Supreme Court because the atmosphere here has become so difficult for journalists to promise confidentiality that the stakes are too high."

The Supreme Court last ruled on the issue in Branzburg vs. Hayes, the well-known 1972 case that offered a vague split decision. Five justices held that there was no privilege for journalists, but agreed that a qualified privilege should apply in some circumstances, which was the position of the four justices in dissent.