On Wednesday, Fitzgerald sounded defensive at times. Dressed in a pea green suit, he said, "Whatever people might want to think of me, this is not an individual effort. It is a team effort." But the legal reasoning his team has relied on has held up well on appeal. It depends on a 1972 Supreme Court decision in a case called Branzburg vs. Hayes, which an attorney for Miller compared to the notorious Dred Scott decision that justified slavery. Paul Branzburg, a 28-year-old reporter, had refused a grand jury subpoena to disclose his sources for a story about hippie culture called "The Hash They Make Isn't to Eat." The highest court in the land eventually split 5 to 4, ruling against Branzburg. The court rejected his claim that the First Amendment protects a journalist's sources.

But the split ruling did not settle the issue. In the years that followed, 31 states, and the District of Columbia, passed shield laws to protect journalists when they keep their vows of confidentiality. (Three proposals for a federal shield law are now winding their way through Congress, though they come too late to help Miller.) In the wake of the Pentagon Papers and Watergate, there was good reason for optimism. The courts largely steered clear of reporters' notebooks, and journalism schools trained their students to prepare for a type of martyrdom that would probably never come.

Now the times have changed again. Watergate is a distant memory, and the press has become everyone's punching bag -- a recent Annenberg poll found that as many Americans consider Rush Limbaugh a journalist as Bob Woodward. In recent years, reporters' confidential notes have been subpoenaed in a half-dozen cases, including lawsuits and investigations tied to Wen Ho Lee, anthrax "person of interest" Steven Hatfill, and even steroid use in baseball. Most journalists have risen to the challenge, facing down prison for their profession. But then Pearlstine decided that the rule of law was more important that the desires of his own reporter, or the traditions of the profession.

Before the courtroom opened, New York Times reporter Adam Liptak stood in the hallway, reminiscing on the days when all journalists knew they could never reveal a confidential source. "Until recently," he said, "that was everyone's understanding of the deal."

Pearlstine's decision, however, may have changed the equation. In his filings, Fitzgerald seemed to revel in the fact that not all journalists hold the same principles. "A number of journalists, first amendment scholars and opinion leaders flatly disagree with the position Miller is taking," he wrote in one filing, an idea that was later echoed by Judge Hogan. James Goodale, a former First Amendment attorney for the New York Times, says such disagreements can be fatal in court. "If the courts believe that there isn't substantial unanimity on this position then it doesn't give the same credibility to the argument."

Outside the courthouse, Bill Keller, the silver-haired editor of the New York Times, seemed to have a similar disdain for Pearlstine's decision. "I think it was wrong," he said. "I can't discern what effect it had on the judge." But he did add that the release of Cooper's notes might have encouraged Cooper's source to come forward, effectively giving Cooper a "get out of jail free card." Someone asked Keller whether he thought it was more justified for Miller to go to jail, considering that her source was not a whistle-blower, but someone who sought to reveal the identity of a CIA operative for political gain. The editor answered on principle. "To paraphrase Donald Rumsfeld," he said, "you go to court with the case you've got."

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