Overview
- A unanimous three-judge panel of the Fourth Circuit ruled Tuesday that the Justice Department’s request for an 18-month log of LinkedIn interactions tied to six journalists was overbroad and must be narrowed by the district court.
- Court documents show the original demand covered about 1,900 LinkedIn interactions and would have revealed identities of confidential sources even though message content was not sought.
- The appeals court said the lower-court secrecy order that barred LinkedIn from notifying affected journalists posed an obvious risk to reporters’ First Amendment rights by keeping them entirely in the dark.
- Judges emphasized that national-security leak investigations remain legitimate but held that courts must balance investigative needs against the risk of sweeping in unrelated sources and harming news-gathering.
- The decision strengthens a growing legal check on expansive government subpoenas in leak probes and could prompt narrower discovery rules for platforms and tighter protections for journalists’ metadata.