Andrew Napolitano on a New Assault on Freedom of the Press

Last week, a little noticed
clash took place on Capitol Hill involving the fundamental values
underlying the First Amendment. The issue was the lawfulness of
publishing the secrets that were given to reporters by former
National Security Agency (NSA) contractor Edward Snowden. Rep. Mike
Rogers (R-Mich.) Rogers summoned the FBI director before his House
committee to float a truly novel and pernicious theory of First
Amendment law, demanding that publishing classified secrets be
considered a crime if the publisher was paid for his work. Andrew
Napolitano points out that if the owners of and reporters at
The Guardian of London or The New York Times or
The Washington Post, who publicly revealed the secrets
Snowden gave them, were paid for their work, the Rogers argument
goes, they, too, could be prosecuted for espionage.