Contextualizing Disclosure's Effects: Wikileaks, Balancing and the First Amendment

Authors

Christina E. Wells, University of Missouri School of LawFollow

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2012

Abstract

This essay responds to Professor Fenster’s article in the Iowa Law Review, Disclosure’s Effects: WikiLeaks and Transparency, assessing the effects of the recent WikiLeaks disclosures. The essay agrees with many of Professor Fenster’s conclusions regarding the promise and peril of those disclosures, especially his concern regarding the problematic balancing approaches used to assess the likely impact when confidential information is revealed. It specifically elaborates on courts’ current application of the Espionage Act, a criminal law likely to be applied to the WikiLeaks disclosures, and the implications of that deferential application for WikiLeaks, Julian Assange and journalists in general.

Recommended Citation

Christina E. Wells, Contextualizing Disclosure's Effects: Wikileaks, Balancing, and the First Amendment, 97 Iowa L. Rev. Bull. 51 (2012)