The judge who ordered former New York Times journalist Judith Miller jailed for refusing to reveal her sources has been appointed to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.
Thomas F. Hogan, a federal judge serving on the District of Columbia District Court, was tapped Monday by Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts. Roberts is allowed to choose judges for the secret court, which oversees the National Security Agency’s wiretapping program.
Hogan attracted controversy when he ordered Miller jailed for refusing to disclose a confidential source to a grand jury. Prior to the case, reporters’ sources were generally seen as protected, even though not formally codified by law. Miller is pictured above right.
The judge said that the rights of journalists to protect confidential sources must be weighed against prosecutors’ power to demand testimony and investigate crimes.
“I have a person in front of me who is defying the law and may be obstructing justice,” Hogan said when pronouncing judgment on Miller in 2005. He averred that allowing Miller to avoid testifying could put the judicial system “on a slippery slope to anarchy.”
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