the government brought a legal action against "the guardian", seeking an order requiring the newspaper to reveal its source. although "the guardian" successfully argued that it was protected by section 10 of the contempt of court act 1981 from providing the information, the judgement by justice scott was almost immediately overturned. the appeal by the attorney general was on the grounds that although the documents themselves were harmless, a civil servant capable of leaking them might leak other documents which could pose a threat to national security.