[caption id="attachment_68794" align="aligncenter" width="600" caption="BC Burns Library"]
The Boston College archives case will go before a federal appeals judge in Boston today.
The judge will decide whether to overrule a lower court decision to approve the release of archived material related to the Northern Ireland Troubles and stored in the college's Burns Library.
The case has been running for a year, ever since federal prosecutors handed subpoenas to the renowned Jesuit university seeking files containing statements from participants in the Troubles who were told that the files would be sealed so long as they remained alive.
Federal prosecutors issued the subpoenas as a result of requests from the Police Service of Northern Ireland.
The legal moves and subsequent court hearings have unleashed a storm of argument and debate centered on journalistic and academic freedoms but also on long ago events during the troubles, including the disappearance and murder of Jean McConville in 1972.
Most recently, leading U.S. politicians including Senators John Kerry and Charles Schumer, have raised concerns over the subpoenas.
Following a letter from Schumer to Attorney General Eric Holder and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, a statement from the two principal compilers of the archive, New York-based journalist and author Ed Moloney, and Ireland-based Anthony McIntyre, expressed gratitude to the New York Democrat.
"We would like to warmly thank Senator Charles Schumer for his brave and principled letter to AG Eric Holder and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton urging them to work with the British government to have the subpoenas served against Boston College's oral history archive withdrawn, the two said in a statement.
And they added: "Senator Schumer is right to point out that if interviews and transcripts about the Troubles in Northern Ireland are handed over to the British this will undermine journalistic and academic guarantees of free speech provided by the First Amendment and will also serve to damage the Good Friday Agreement in Northern Ireland which ushered in an end to the conflict there.
"In particular, we welcome Senator Schumer's observation that in dealing with legal co-operation with the UK, the U.S. Senate specifically requested that nothing be done that would or could 'reopen issues' addressed in the Good Friday Agreement. In other words, the issue of responsibility for actions in the past should remain in the past.
"We look forward to our appeal hearing in Boston on April 4th, confident that with the support of figures like Senator Schumer, his colleague Senator John Kerry, other members of Congress and countless supporters throughout the United States, common sense will triumph and we will prevail against this foolish and counterproductive action by the British government."
