Alan Grayson: “This amendment has nothing to do with medical marijuana. It was passed last year by a vote of this body of 225-183; in…”

“This amendment has nothing to do with medical marijuana. It was passed last year by a vote of this body of 225-183; in other words, it passed by a majority of 42 votes. {time} 0100 The purpose of this amendment is to raise the possibility of a Federal shield law that corresponds to protections already in place in 49 States but not at the level of the Federal Government. Again, to be clear about this, 49 States have a Federal shield law. The Federal Government does not--at least up to this point. A shield law is designed to protect a reporter's privilege: the right of news reporters to refuse to testify on information and sources of information obtained during the news gathering and dissemination process. In short, a reporter should not be forced to reveal his or her sources under penalty of imprisonment. This issue has come up in court cases at the Federal level and the Supreme Court level, beginning with the 1972 case of Branzburg v. Hayes. In that case, a reporter wished to inform his readers about the nature of the drug hashish, and he realized that the only way to go about that was to actually find and interview people who had actually used the drug hashish, so he did that. After he published his article, relying upon two confidential sources, he was subpoenaed by the police to provide his sources so that they could be arrested, compromising their identity and compromising his journalistic integrity.…”