AMA upholds privacy of patients' records.
CHICAGO -- Federal efforts aimed at acquiring the private medical records of patients, including those who have had miscarriages or abortions, were opposed in a resolution approved by the House of Delegates of the American Medical Association at its 2004 annual meeting. The resolution calls on the...

A fragile privilege: may journalists refuse to turn over notes and reveal their sources to the courts?
It was no surprise when columnist Robert Novak swore that he would never reveal who had leaked him the name of CIA employee Valerie Plame. Many reporters would agree that ethics, or pragmatism, or both require them to protect confidential sources at all costs. Ask most journalists how they...

What's in a Name?
The outcome in the Vanessa Leggett case could affect a journalist's privilege. Throughout August, the news media were riveted to the sorry saga of Vanessa Leggett, who found herself subpoenaed by federal prosecutors in connection with a grand jury investigation of an unsolved 1997 Texas murder. ...

Nida Blanca murder charges filed by NBI; Strunk, Medel among 8 suspects.
Byline: REY G. PANALIGAN and VIC VEGA The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) yesterday identified three of the eight suspects in the murder of veteran movie actress Nida Blanca, shortly after the NBI and the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) of the Philippine National Police (PNP)...

The Vanessa Leggett Saga.
An aspiring true-crime author with virtually no writing credentials spent nearly six months in jail rather than turn over all of her notes, tapes and other materials to law enforcement authorities. Here's a look at the making of an unlikely martyr for the first Amendment. On a...

Shedding light on Darkness at High Noon.
Fourteen years ago, for this magazine, I wrote an article entitled "The Squishiness of Current Blacklist Documentaries." In it I criticized the makers of those documentaries for failing to ask and answer serious questions about their topic. I also noted, though I did not explore, the one-sidedness of these...

Tactics inside and out: Gregg Bordowitz on Critical Art Ensemble.
To the Research Labs, Sirs: You may be proud As peacocks. You've endowed Us from the start with freedoms that entrap. We are the red-eyed mice on whom your maze Is printed. At its heart a little cloud Thins and dwindles--zap!-- To nothing in one blink of rays. --James...

Patriot vs. Patriot act.
For decades Village Voice columnist Nat Hentoff has been one of America's most trenchant defenders of civil liberties. The most recent of his many books, The War on the Bill of Rights--and the Gathering Resistance (Seven Stories Press), was published in 2003; it explores the USA PATRIOT Act and...

Cut-rate diplomas: how doubts about the government's own "Dr. Laura" exposed a resume fraud scandal.
LAURA L. CALLAHAN was very proud of her Ph.D. When she received it a few years ago, she promptly rewrote her official biography to highlight the academic accomplishment, referring to it not once or twice but nine times in a single-page summary of her career. And she never let...

Stop reading over my shoulder: the Colorado Supreme Court shields book-purchase records from government snoops. (First Amendment Watch).
Does the government have the right to know what books you buy? Before September 11, most people would have said, "Absolutely not." The right to read what you choose without law enforcement looking over your shoulder is fundamental. Remember the uproar when Kenneth Starr's Office of Independent...