Witnesses Tell House Judiciary Committee: “Don’t Overreact to Wikileaks” | Lippmann Would Roll

Witnesses Tell House Judiciary Committee: “Don’t Overreact to Wikileaks”

Posted on December 17, 2010 by Matt Schafer

by Matthew L. Schafer

On Thursday, Ralph Nader joined experts from academia and professional practice to offer testimony before the House Committee on the Judiciary.

On Thursday, the House Committee on the Judiciary met to discuss both Wikileaks and the Espionage Act of 1917. (See full video here.) Representative John Conyers [D-MI] opened the meeting, saying, “Prosecuting WikiLeaks would raise the most fundamental questions about free speech, about who is a journalist and what citizens can know about their government.  The problem today is not too little secrecy but too much secrecy.”

When all was said and done, the witnesses seemed to agree, in part, that the government is overclassifying information, the Espionage Act of 1917 is likely unconstitutional, the SHIELD Act, proposed recently by Sen. Joe Lieberman [I-CT], rests on a shaky constitutional footing also, and it is important that the legislature not overreact to the WikiLeaks cables.

“The government always overreacts to leaks, and history shows we end up with more damage from the overreaction than from the original leak,” Tom Blanton of the National Security Archive said.

Blanton was also joined by six other witnesses: Ralph Nader, legal advocate and author; Stephen Vladeck, Professor of Law at American University; Gabriel Schoenfeld, Senior Fellow at the Hudson Institute; Geoffrey Stone, Professor of Law at University of Chicago; Kenneth Wainstein, Partner at O’Melveny & Myers LLP; and Abbe Lowell Partner at McDermott Will & Emery LLP.

While almost all witness agreed that there are several flaws within the Espionage Act,  there was disagreement as to whether WikiLeaks is protected by the First Amendment.  With all witnesses having testified, four argued that Wikileaks is protected by the Constitution, two argued that it should be prosecuted, and witness Stephen Vladeck abstained from making a determination on WikiLeaks.

via lippmannwouldroll.com