WHEREAS, fewer than twenty states in the United States have enacted "shielding" legislation and there is no federal legislation of this kind at all in the United States; and

WHEREAS, the courts, including the US Supreme Court, have denied reporters and historians the right to refuse to disclose sources of information; and

WHEREAS, recently some persons have been jailed for refusal to disclose sources of information;

BE IT RESOLVED: That the 1973 General Assembly of the Unitarian Universalist Association urges that state and federal legislation be enacted in the United States to protect reporters, historians, medical doctors and clergy from prosecution for declining to disclose the sources of their information received in confidence.