Confidential sources

A California judge subpoenaed Washington Times reporter William Gertz in May over suspected grand jury leaks in a Chinese espionage case. Now, if Gertz refuses to divulge his sources, as he's indicated he will do, the judge wants him to appear in court and say why.

A county judge in Pennsylvania has rebuffed efforts to pry reporters' notes and phone records from six news groups in a grand jury leak probe.

But the court has yet to decide whether to compel the 15 subpoenaed journalists to testify.

In an unusual written notice, U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton has informed former USA Today reporter Toni Locy that if she asks the D.C. Circuit to remand the appeal of her contempt citation, he will vacate the order.

Two Massachusetts reporters are seeking to protect the identity of confidential sources after asking a judge to quash subpoenas seeking their testimony in a murder case.

John Entwistle, charged with killing his wife and daughter, subpoenaed the two reporters, Michele McPhee and Laurel Sweet, to determine how they obtained a letter written by Entwistle to his lawyers. 

A Phoenix TV station didn’t waive its right under the state shield law and doesn’t have to reveal the source of sealed documents it used for a story on a tire safety lawsuit, according to an opinion released Tuesday by the Arizona Court of Appeals.

A divided three-judge panel rejected Cooper Tire and Rubber Co.’s argument that KNVX-TV waived its reporter’s privilege by asking a lower court for a declaratory judgment and by describing the source as a whistleblower.

The New York Times reports that a federal grand jury subpoenaed Times reporter James Risen, ordering him to appear before a grand jury in Alexandria, Va., next week  in an effort to make him reveal the confidential sources for his 2006 book, "State of War."

An Ohio newspaper is fighting two subpoenas requiring one of its reporters to testify in the trials of seven defendants accused of drug trafficking.

The Mount Vernon News filed two motions on Friday in support of its reporter, Anton Hepler. The first asks the court to require the prosecutor to show why Helper needs to testify and the other responds to the prosecutor’s threat to get a court order to ban Helper from watching the trial.

Reporters in Utah are now protected by a shield law -- actually a Supreme Court rule, because the state's constitution gives the courts the authority in this area.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Viktor V. Pohorelsky held that neither the New York Times nor Amnesty International would be forced to identify confidential sources who provided information for a report about tape recorded conversations between attorneys and inmates in a federal prison in Brooklyn, N.Y.

Reporters James Stewart and Toni Locy asked Judge Reggie Walton to reconsider his order compelling them to testify in former Army scientist Steven Hatfill’s Privacy Act suit against the government.

In 2001, then Attorney General John Ashcroft identified Hatfill as a “person of interest” in the Department of Justice’s investigation into the 2001 anthrax attacks. Hatfill subsequently brought suit against the Department of Justice for releasing information about their investigation to the media.