The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to review a lower court ruling that a journalist has no First Amendment right to refuse to identify a confidential source whose leak of classified information may have violated the law. Mark Berman of the Washington Post analyzes the stakes and the consequences —for New York Times reporter James Risen and for the press generally—and another national security reporter earlier threatened with a similar source exposure threat explains why the high court’s reaction could have been much worse for both Risen and journalists generally.
