Justice Department

“[T]he specter of government misconduct looms over the entire Carmody matter,” the judge wrote.

The new policy replaces the balancing test that required the DOJ to weigh investigative needs against press rights.

"The attorney general has taken a necessary and momentous step to protect press freedom at a critical time."

The Bolton suit, which RCFP called "flatly unconstitutional," was one of the more extraordinary moves by the DOJ under former President Trump.

The policy change follows revelations that DOJ officials under Presidents Trump and Biden sought to secretly seize reporters’ email records.

The FBI is demanding information from Gannett that could identify the readers of a USA Today article.

The Justice Department under former President Donald Trump delayed notifying the journalists before pursuing their records.

The news media guidelines, now under renewed scrutiny, serve as an important federal safeguard for reporter-source confidentiality.

“Whenever the government seeks to obtain records of journalists’ communications, it raises serious First Amendment concerns."

RCFP is urging AG Merrick Garland to “examine whether force, arrests … have been misused to chill legitimate journalistic work.”