Judge pauses $800-a-day-fines for journo Catherine Herridge, boosting her First Amendment case
Former Fox News investigative reporter Catherine Herridge bought a major enhance in her First Amemdment case Friday, after a federal appeals court docket decide reversed course and said she doesn’t should pay a hefty daily high quality for refusing to determine confidential sources.
District Court Judge Christopher Cooper ruled that the journalist would no longer should pay a $800 daily contempt fine — which she began paying two weeks in the past — until she has the probability to appeal to the Supreme Court.
As a result, she might be reimbimbursed the $14,400 in checks she has already written.
Ex-Fox News investigative reporter Catherine Herridge bought a major enhance in her First Amemdment case, after a federal appeals court docket decide said she doesn’t should pay a hefty daily high quality for refusing to determine confidential sources. Getty Images
Herridge is anticipated to ask the Supreme Court later this month to listen to her case, which stems from her 2017 reporting at Fox News on Yanping Chen, a Chinese-American scientist who was the subject of an FBI counterintelligence investigation.
Chen sued the FBI and other authorities businesses in 2018 for allegedly violating the Privacy Act. Herridge turned entangled in the case because Chen subpoenaed her as a third-party witness and has tried to stress her to reveal the identities of her federal sources who leaked the information.
The journalist refused and was held in civil contempt in 2024 and ordered to fork over the steep $800-a-day fine to stress her to unmask her sources. The former Fox News and CBS News investigative reporter appealed the resolution, however last yr, Cooper denied her plea to pause the fines.
Friday’s ruling marks a retreat from the decide’s prior resolution amid stress from media teams saying it hinders press freedom. Cooper also denied Chen’s current movement to up Herridge’s daily $800 high quality to $5,000.
Yanping Chen sued the FBI, alleging federal officers unlawfully leaked protected info
about her to the media during a counterintelligence investigation. LinkedIn/Yanping Chen
Herridge declined to remark. Her lawyer didn’t instantly reply to requests for remark.
Chen’s lawyer didn’t instantly remark.
When the appeals court docket upheld the contempt order last yr, the Freedom of the Press Foundation called the resolution “a significant blow to press freedom for all journalists.”
Fox News, which is paying for Herridge’s legal payments, equally warned that “forcing a journalist to reveal a source not only threatens press freedom but chills investigative reporting that holds the powerful accountable.”
Herridge’s legal professional Pat Philbin beforehand said she “remains committed to protecting reporters’ First Amendment rights and confidential sources.”
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