Catherine Herridge

MY FIRST AMENDMENT CASE: SUPREME COURT CERT PETITION NOW PUBLICLY DOCKETED

We believe the critical First Amendment issues in this case merit the Supreme Court’s review.

If I had been a reporter in Boston, in the First Circuit, the subpoena for my confidential sources would have been quashed by the courts years ago.

But the decisions in my case have made protections for reporters and their sources in Washington DC the weakest—even though this is where most national security stories are reported.

The outcome of our case will impact every journalist and their ability to protect confidential sources.

It should also concern every journalist — and every American who values a free press — that vital First Amendment rights are being decided in a case where the courts have kept important information hidden from public view.

I have never seen this unclassified evidence, but court records confirm it includes the Department of Defense’s decision to terminate the plaintiff's federal funding on national security grounds.

Serious journalists everywhere should demand the release of this sealed evidence, so the public can fully understand what is at stake when courts impose fines and order reporters to reveal their confidential sources.

- Catherine

NEW: First Amendment Case + National Security

In a friend of the court or “Amicus brief" filed Friday, @SenTedCruz @BasedMikeLee @SenLummis urge the Supreme Court to hear our First Amendment case, citing national security.

The lower court (DC Circuit) held me in contempt for refusing to disclose my confidential reporting sources to the plaintiff whose school for US military personnel lost its federal funding on “national security grounds.”

The Senators write; “This Court’s guidance as to whether a court may consider the United States’ national security and core constitutional rights when compelling a reporter to disclose confidential source information is sorely needed.”

“The D.C. Circuit’s rule doesn’t permit a court to ask whether disclosure of a reporter’s sources would harm national security, whether it would dry up reporting on which the public and Congress depend, or whether a damages claim the court below acknowledged may be worth as little as $1,000 justifies those harms…”

The Supreme Court is expected to consider our CERT Petition in early December and issue its decision shortly thereafter.

Thank you, Senators, for standing up for the First Amendment and national security interests.

Full Brief on Supreme Court docket. 👇

UPDATE: Largest Labor Union representing working media artists and journalists @sagaftra urges Supreme Court to hear our First Amendment case about the protection of a reporter's confidential sources.

In a friend of the court or "Amicus brief" filed Friday, SAG-AFTRA writes;

"Investigative journalism runs on trust. Sources extend trust, one reporter at a time, and the promise of confidentiality is how a reporter earns it."

"A rule under which that promise is only as good as the reporter's ability to fund a contempt fight breaks that trust.”

For reporters and their sources, our First Amendment case reveals there are different rules in different parts of the country; what's known as a 'circuit split.'

For example, if I had reported the investigation at the heart of this First Amendment case in Boston, not Washington D.C., the subpoena would have been thrown out years ago.

SAG-AFTRA "represents over 10,000 journalists and media professionals who gather and report the news in every part of the country.

For them, the circuit split is not abstract. It determines whether the promise of confidentiality they make to a source can be kept…."

The Supreme Court is expected to consider our CERT Petition in early December and issue its decision shortly thereafter.

As a long-standing member of SAG-AFTRA, thank you for standing up for journalism and a free press.

Full SAG-AFTRA Brief on Supreme Court Docket 👇

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Thank for believing in independent journalism!