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Supreme Court won’t save reporter from having to reveal source or pay contempt fines

MS NOW

July 2, 2026 at 4:15pm UTC

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The Supreme Court declined to save journalist Catherine Herridge from having to reveal her source or pay fines in a case that she said raises a crucial First Amendment issue.

Herridge had asked the justices to stop a lower court ruling from taking effect that would put her to that choice.

In an order on Thursday, the high court declined Herridge’s request. As is typical for such actions, the court did not explain its reasoning. The order noted that Justice Brett Kavanaugh would have granted Herridge’s request.

She was held in contempt by a Washington, D.C., judge in a case brought against the federal government by Yanping Chen, who alleged that officials violated the Privacy Act by disclosing records about her that were collected as part of an FBI investigation. The records were published by Fox News, where Herridge worked at the time.

To help in her lawsuit against the government, Chen sought to make Herridge identify who leaked the records. Herridge invoked the reporter’s privilege under the First Amendment, but the district judge said Chen overcame the privilege and ordered Herridge to answer Chen’s questions. Herridge declined, and the court held her in contempt and set a fine of $800 a day. The federal appeals court in Washington upheld the judge’s ruling.

Herridge urged the appeals court to halt its ruling from taking effect while she petitions the Supreme Court on what she called the exceptionally important question of the scope of the reporter’s privilege to protect confidential sources. Without such relief in the meantime, her lawyers argued to the appeals court, she’d have to “reveal her confidential source(s) or pay a draconian sanction of $800 per day, in violation of her First Amendment rights.”