Application of Caldwell

MEMORANDUM OPINION

This matter comes before the Court on the motion of Earl Caldwell (á full time staff reporter of the newspaper, The New York Times) and The New York Times Company, publisher of the newspaper and employer of Mr. Caldwell, to quash a subpoena ad testificandum summoning Mr. Caldwell to appear and give testimony relative to interviews with officers and spokesmen of the Black Panther Party, which interviews conducted by Mr. Caldwell, movants assert were confidential and within the scope of a relationship of trust maintained by him as a professional journalist with members of the Panther Party. The subpoena was issued by the Federal Grand Jury sitting in this District and served on Mr. Caldwell on March 16, 1970.

Preliminarily, the Court is called upon to determine the standing of The New York Times Company, publisher of the newspaper, to join with its full time staff reporter, Earl Caldwell, to challenge the grand jury subpoena of March 16, 1970.

Based upon the Supreme Court’s teachings, “the gist of the question of standing” is whether the party seeking relief has “alleged such a personal stake in the outcome of the controversy as to assure that concrete…