Having been out of town last week for spring break, I’m catching up on some reading. Perhaps you, too, were doing Jager shots in Padre all last week and missed this post over at the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Hanni Fakhoury, an EFF staff attorney, reveals that the foundation was less than five days away from filing an amicus brief in Barrett’s case on behalf of a whole host of organizations, including Reporters Without Borders, Freedom of the Press Foundation, and PEN American Center. Fakhoury writes:
We may never know why the government finally decided to drop the charges, though it could have been due to the threat of our amicus brief. We called the Assistant U.S. Attorney handling the case on Tuesday to let her know we planned to file the brief (a formality). The next day, without any warning to us or to Brown’s lawyer, the government filed its motion to dismiss, which the court granted on Friday.
Fakhoury goes on to explain how the prosecution of Barrett still threatens journalistic freedom in the United States. Also, if you missed it last week, here is the fourth installment of Barrett’s column for us. If you know anything about Henry Kissinger, you’ll enjoy it. Even if you don’t know anything about Henry Kissinger, you’ll enjoy it.
