New York Times reporter James Risen’s appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court was denied Monday, leaving the Pulitzer Prize winner facing a possible choice between jail and identifying a confidential source.

He’s already made up his mind: He would rather go to jail.

“I’ve said that many times,” he told U.S. News immediately after the court declined to hear his case.

Risen says he’s disappointed by the court’s decision. Some reporters’ advocates hoped justices would accept the case as an opportunity to clarify the court's murky, four-decades-old guidance about journalists’ ability to shield sources.

Risen is fighting a May 2011 subpoena requiring him to testify in a criminal trial against Jeffrey Sterling, a former Central Intelligence Agency employee whom federal prosecutors say supplied a shocking scoop for Risen’s 2006 book, “State of War: The Secret History of the CIA and the Bush Administration.”

According to prosecutors, Sterling told Risen about a mismanaged CIA scheme to supply Iran with inaccurate nuclear weapon blueprints. The misinformation ploy fell apart, Risen wrote, after the Russian scientist who delivered the plans noticed design flaws and tipped off the Iranians.

It’s unclear if federal prosecutors will continue to seek Risen’s testimony.

Attorney General Eric Holder told a group of journalists Tuesday that “as long as I’m attorney general, no reporter who is doing his job is going to go to jail.” Deputy Attorney General James Cole added Wednesday, "Just because you issue a subpoena doesn't mean you're jailing anybody."

But Risen, who faces jail for contempt if he refuses to testify, isn’t certain what the apparent hints mean.

“I don’t know what to make of what [Holder] said. … I don’t know what they’re going to do,” he says.

The Supreme Court previously addressed whether journalists have a right to privileged communication with sources in its 1972 Branzburg v. Hayes decision. A 5-4 majority ruled reporters can be forced to testify about sources to grand juries.

But a concurring opinion by the decisive fifth vote, Justice Lewis F. Powell Jr., sought to narrow the majority and has resulted in some lower courts granting protection to reporters.