Press: Plugging a Leak

Justice Burger plays detective

Tradition calls for the nine Justices to appear from behind the burgundy curtains of the Supreme Court at exactly 10 a.m. to announce their rulings. That is supposed to be the first public word of a decision, and few journalists have been able, or especially eager, to penetrate the court's curtain of secrecy.*

Last month, however, ABC Correspondent Tim O'Brien reported that the court was about to rule that a journalist's state of mind could be probed in libel suits (the court so ruled two days later). O'Brien afterward disclosed that a lower-court decision involving prisoners' rights would be...

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