Supreme Court Rejects NY Times On Leak Probe

The Supreme Court ruled against The New York Times on Monday, refusing to block the government from reviewing the phone records of two Times reporters in a leak investigation of a terrorism-funding probe.

The one-sentence order came in a First Amendment battle that involves stories written in 2001 by Times reporters Judith Miller and Philip Shenon revealing the government's plans to freeze the assets of two Islamic charities, the Holy Land Foundation and the Global Relief Foundation.

Shenon and Miller called the two organizations for comment after being told by confidential sources of the government's plans.

The Justice Department says the move tipped off the charities of planned government raids. The federal judge who ruled in the Times' favor said there is no evidence in the case even suggesting that the reporters tipped off the charities about the raids or that the reporters even knew of the government's plans to raid either charity.

The government says that the fact that the reporters relayed disclosures from a government source to "targets of an imminent law enforcement action substantially weakens any claim of freedom of the press."

In August, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 2-1 that federal prosecutors can see the two reporters' phone records. Miller retired from the Times a year ago.