Weighing the Consequences Of Telling Others the Truth

http://web.utk.edu/~scheb/scphotos.html

From today's issue of the The New York Times, in an article at page A12 National Report -- Adam Liptak: Sidebar --"Weighing the Consequences of telling others the truth"

http://select.nytimes.com/gst/tsc.html?URI=http://select.nytimes.com/2007/01/29/timesselect/29bar.html&OQ=_rQ3D1Q26refQ3Dwashington&OP=269af6e8Q2FmLQ7CQ60mdpQ2000dmwDD4mD.mw2mdZQ22Q7CppQ7CYQ7CPdmw2Q60Q5BQ20Q25_dQ22Y

In an argument in a grand ceremonial courtroom, nine judges were trying to figure out how to answer one of the great open questions in American constitutional law: When is it right to punish people for telling the truth about matters of public concern?

In threatening to prosecute reporters for publishing articles about surveillance programs and secret prisons, and in actually prosecuting two lobbyists for passing along information a government official had linked to them, the Bush Administration says the First Amendment offers no protection to people who did nothing beyond learning things and talking about them.