RT Book
T1 Pressing California Shield Law on Criminal Defendants: A Weighting Game
A1 Bach, Amy R.
LA English
YR 1989
UL https://krimdok.uni-tuebingen.de/Record/1866150677
AB Both the California Constitution and Evidence Code provide journalists with shield law protection that allows them to avoid contempt citations for failing to answer subpoenas. This protection allows them to ensure source confidentiality and is integral to the newsgathering process. However, it clashes with the federal constitutional guarantee that criminal defendants may subpoena information for their defense. This Note examines the controversy that arises when a criminal defendant seeks access via subpoena to the same information a reporter seeks to protect. The author proposes a revised approach to supplant currently inadequate standards for resolving such controversies