Key Points
- The U.S. Supreme Court declined to block daily fines against journalist Catherine Herridge, allowing a lower court order to remain in effect as part of a civil lawsuit tied to leaked federal investigative materials.
- The decision means Herridge faces $800 per day in fines until she complies with a court order requiring her to disclose confidential sources used in a 2017 report on an FBI investigation.
- A federal judge ruled that Chen’s need to identify the source of the leak outweighed Herridge’s claim of journalistic privilege, ordering her to answer questions during a deposition or face escalating fines.
The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday rejected a former Fox News journalist’s effort to maintain the confidentiality of her sources after being threatened with daily fines in a related civil case.
The order means the reporter, Catherine Herridge, is on the hook for $800 in daily fines until she complies with a lower court’s demand that she disclose the names of her anonymous tipsters used for a Fox News story about a national security matter.
The dispute arises from a lawsuit filed by Yanping Chen, a Chinese American scientist who sued the federal government after confidential investigative materials related to an FBI inquiry were leaked to the media. Although Chen was investigated for several years over alleged ties to China’s military and astronaut program, the investigation ended without criminal charges.
Herridge reported on the FBI’s investigation in 2017. Chen later sued the FBI and the U.S. Department of Justice, alleging government officials violated the Privacy Act by disclosing confidential information from the investigation to reporters.
As part of that lawsuit, Chen sought to identify the individual responsible for the leak. During the case, U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper ordered Herridge to answer questions during a deposition regarding the identity of her confidential source or sources, concluding that Chen’s need for the information outweighed the reporter’s interest in protecting source confidentiality.
Herridge refused, citing her journalistic privilege. Cooper ordered daily fines of $800 until she complied with his demand.
Under Washington, D.C. law, reporters cannot be legally coerced into revealing their sources. Several other states have similar so-called shield laws that are meant to strengthen a journalist’s privilege in researching and reporting the news.
No similar law exists at the federal level, which creates a dilemma for reporters who are interviewed or testify in civil and criminal cases: They must choose between their ethical duty to keep a source confidential when anonymity is promised, or their legal obligation to disclose their source’s names when ordered to by a court.
In a statement, a spokesperson for Fox News said the network stands by Herridge and was disappointed in the Supreme Court’s decision.
“Protecting the confidentiality of journalistic sourcing and the integrity of the news-gathering process is fundamental to a free and functioning democracy,” the Fox News spokesperson said over e-mail. “While we are deeply disappointed by the Court’s decision, our commitment to defending these critical First Amendment principles remains unwavering and we will be reviewing our options to further fight this injustice.”
The order handed down on Thursday merely relates to a request to stay the lower court’s fines; it does not resolve the issue of whether Herridge must disclose her sources under federal or district law. Herridge’s attorney has not commented on the matter, and it remains unclear if she will continue to pursue the issue in any court.
Herridge left Fox News in 2019 to join CBS News. In recent years, she has produced her own independent journalism through the newsletter platform Beehiiv.
