Popkin Asks for High Court Ruling

Attorney for Samuel L. Popkin, lecturer in Government, filed a petition with the Supreme Court yesterday asking it to review his case.

Popkin was jailed for a week last November for contempt after refusing to answer what he termed "irrelevant" questions before a U.S. grant jury in Boston investigating the Pentagon papers. Popkin said that the questions asked for "confidential sources," and based his defense on the first' amendment, which protects freedom of the press.

The First District Court of Appeals rejected a stay of sentence in the case. However, Daniel Klubeck, one of the Popkin's lawyers, reported that a Ninth District Court of Appeals in California last month granted a stay based on the irrelevancy of grand jury questions.

Klubeck said yesterday that the petition, called a certiorari, would ask the Court to review Popkin's case question by question. "It is very important that this conflict between the district courts be resolved," Klubeck said.

Popkin said yesterday that he thought his case was "a very important constitutional issue." "The government has said that it wants confidential sources and I think my case is a good ground for a test," he added.

Popkin said he could be called up against before the good grand jury at any time. However the grand jury which was questioning him has been dissolved for the duration of the duration of the trial of Daniel Ellyberg '52.