Back to the Bar

Leonard Lyons, a lawyer before he turned Broadway columnist, last week stepped up to the bar in Manhattan's federal courthouse to clam a privilege that many a newsman has claimed in the past. The principle underlying his claim: the relations between a reporter and his various sources are confidential--or, as Columnist Lyons said, "Sacred."

Lyons was brought before Judge John C. Knox at the request of Emanuel Bloch, attorney for Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, atom spies sentenced to death (TIME, April 16). The Government, said Bloch, was conspiring to break down Mrs. Rosenberg and get a "false" confession from her --and Columnist Lyons was part of the conspiracy. The reason Bloch thought so was that since February (shortly before their trial) no less than 20 "leaks" on the case had appeared in "The Lyons Den," syndicated in 102 papers. Sample item: "If [the convicted Rosenbergs] talk, they still can save themselves . . ." Attorney Bloch wanted the court to order Lyons to reveal his sources for these tips, pointing out that Lyons had long been acquainted with U.S. Attorney Irving Saypol, who prosecuted the Rosenbergs.

In court and in his column, Lawyer Lyons said that he would not obey any such order, portentously proclaimed that relations between columnist and tipster are as sacred as the relations between "client and lawyer, physician and patient, confessor and clergyman." (Snapped Lyons' fellow columnist Walter Winchell: "Let him go to jail. It will give me a big laugh.")

This week, when Lyons reappeared in court, he was no longer his own counsel. His new advocate: the Kefauver Committee's Rudolph Halley. Nevertheless Judge Knox ruled that news sources are not privileged; the judge would decide later whether Lyons' items are relevant. If so, Lyons will have to name his sources or be charged with contempt.

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