Biography
Samuel L. Popkin was a political scientist jailed for civil contempt after declining some grand-jury questions in the Pentagon Papers investigation in Massachusetts. A later First Circuit opinion records eight days actually spent in jail.
Samuel L. Popkin was a political scientist jailed for civil contempt after declining some grand-jury questions in the Pentagon Papers investigation in Massachusetts. A later First Circuit opinion records eight days actually spent in jail. Civil-contempt confinement; the First Circuit’s February 28, 2022 opinion expressly records eight actual days in jail, followed by discharge of the grand jury without further testimony. No exact jail-entry or physical discharge date is supplied. The Supreme Court denied a stay on November 10, 1972 and later denied review on March 26, 1973; those are court-ruling dates, not custody endpoints.
U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, No. 20-1836, February 28, 2022, page 4.
The Supreme Court journal records stay denial on November 10, 1972 (A-444) and review denial on March 26, 1973 (72-974), with Justice Douglas favoring relief. These judicial dates are not jail endpoints.
Supreme Court Journal, original pages 202 and 486 (PDF214 and498).
Kennedy’s June 15 speech compares the Fort Worth case with Harvard professor Popkin’s Pentagon Papers contempt confinement in Boston. It describes release on bail, renewed jailing after a district judge rejected his challenge, and release after seven further days in November 1972 when the grand jury was about to expire and no longer actively investigating. Those seven further days are a segment, not a replacement for the later judicial account of eight actual days overall. No exact physical release day is supplied.
