Court Opinion

ID: 9458198
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 20:45:22.992807+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:35:40.267731
License: Public Domain

ALDRICH, Chief Judge
(concurring).
We are, to the extent that we are asked to recognize any privilege here at all, exploring very new ground, and while Judge McEntee and I agree with the result, and much of Judge Coffin’s opinion, our cast would be somewhat different. A minor difference relates to Judge Coffin’s approach to the questions about Popkin’s “opinions” as to who had had possession of the Pentagon Papers. Our only objection to those questions is the semantic one that they are badly phrased. What, after all, is meant by an opinion? Had the question been, “Is there anyone who you have reason to believe had possession of the papers in Massachusetts, and what are the reasons?” it would have seemed just the sort of inquiry that might lead to something useful. One cannot expect gold with every stroke of the pick.
Of more significance, we are not so sure on what the court calls “decision-making (and those affected)” sources. A valuable, confidential source may be at a very low, and even unrelated level. If what is sought to be protected is the public interest in information, should not the need of confidentiality be the test, not the position of the source?
This question leads us to a dilemma. What assurance does a court have that there is a need of confidentiality in the particular case? Popkin, if we judge from his oral argument, believes that he should have an all-encompassing mantle in whatever may be his field, so that he can be known as a “safe” man to talk to. We do not read Judge Coffin as going that far; nor would we. But where does one stop?
Perhaps I am old-fashioned, but I was taught that a scholarly study was valuable to the extent that it disclosed its sources. How does Popkin know that he, and hence his public, is not being hornswoggled by a “source”? Is there great public worth in a book, the reference table of which consists of a bare curriculum vitae of the author ?
The answer may be yes, and may be no. I am tempted to wonder, though I hope uncharacteristically, if too much is not being asked of the First Amendment. Hearst could consider Walter Winchell so valuable to it that it was willing to agree that, in case of a libel suit, it would pick up the tab and not require him to divulge his source. Is the public so interested in research that the government finds itself with a similar, although diminished in scope, contract of immunity from disclosure with every Ph.D.? If so, we believe it should be in very narrow limits. Happily this case does not' call for them to be defined.