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The New York Times served a giant bitchslap to the Department of Justice yesterday with a lawsuit against John Ashcroft. No, you can't just go and sue someone for being an asshole, but you can sue them for trying to obtain information on journalists' confidential sources. It has something to do with the First Amendment, we hear.

The feds are conducting a probe to reveal government sources who may have leaked information regarding Iraq to the Times' Judith Miller and Philip Shenon; the paper wants to protect the identity of those sources (how kind of them!) and is now pulling out the legal pit bulls in order to do so. While we're kind of loving the Times right now for refusing to comply with the disturbing yet trendy degree of government intrusion going down, we think a cage match between Ashcroft and Miller would be equally effective and perhaps more quickly settle things.
New York Times Sues Aschcroft Over Phone Records In Leak Inquiry [AP]
Previously: Judith Miller