Court Judge Murray Gurfein. After his decision, the Justice Department dropped the Espionage Act argument from the case. In a 6–3 decision, the Supreme Court ruled the US government could not stop the Times from publishing the Pentagon Papers, holding that prior restraints were barred by the First Amendment unless the publication "will surely result in direct, immediate, and irreparable damage to our Nation or its people." Reporter's privilege In January 1970, as part of a wave of subpoenas issued to national reporters, New York Times reporter Earl Caldwell was subpoenaed by the US Justice Department. Media organizations such as Newsweek, Time, and Life magazines complied with their subpoenas, but Goodale caused the New York Times and Caldwell to challenge Caldwell's subpoena. Caldwell and the Times argued in court he did not have to answer questions from a grand jury about the identity of his sources because, as a member of the press, he was protected by the First Amendment. Caldwell and the New York Times won in the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, thereby establishing reporter's privilege for the first time in any court. In 1972, Caldwell v. United States was merged with two other similar cases at the Supreme Court and became known as Branzburg v. Hayes. Goodale crafted the media's strategy at the Supreme Court level. In a 5–4 decision, the Supreme Court overturned Caldwell's case and held reporters, in the circumstances of the case, do not have a First Amendment right to protect their sources and defy a subpoena. Justice Powell's concurrence with the majority was the swing vote. Goodale subsequently wrote an article for the Hastings Law Journal in which he argued that Justice Powell's concurrence with the majority actually argued for a qualified reporter's privilege, "though, on its face, their ruling said just the opposite." He argued the Court's ruling was narrow and so the reporter's privilege should be judged on a case-by-case basis. Using his article as a basis for protecting reporters' sources, he persuaded other media companies, such as Time, NBC, CBS, and The Washington Post to refuse to comply with government subpoenas. He argued using the power of contempt to resist requests for sources would cause state and federal courts, as well as state legislatures, to recognize a qualified reporters' privilege. This strategy succeeded, as over 1000 reporters privilege cases have been brought before state and federal court since his Hastings