April 25, 2025
Attorney General Pam Bondi issued a memo on April 25, 2025, rescinding Biden-era rules that barred the DOJ from subpoenaing journalists or seizing their records in leak investigations.
Bondi issued her memo rescinding journalist protections on April 25, 2025
The Biden-era policy (Garland, July 2021) barred DOJ from subpoenaing journalists after revelations Trump's first DOJ secretly seized phone records of NYT, WaPo, and CNN reporters
Bondi's new policy allows subpoenas, search warrants, and court orders against reporters in leak investigations
DOJ leadership must approve each action and journalists must receive advance notice, but no reporter or publication is categorically shielded
No federal shield law protecting journalists' sources currently exists in the United States
The Freedom of the Press Foundation condemned the reversal as threatening investigative journalism's foundation
Congressional Democrats sent a May 7, 2025 letter demanding justification and urging Bondi to support a shield law
Attorney General
Former Attorney General
President, Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press
U.S. Senator (D-MN)
FBI Director
civic action
Contact your senators and House representative to demand a vote on the PRESS Act
The PRESS Act is the most direct legislative response to journalist subpoena threats. It has already passed the House — the Senate is the remaining obstacle, and constituent pressure on specific senators is the primary tool for moving Senate votes.
The U.S. has no federal shield law protecting reporters from subpoenas. Contact your senators and House representative through senate.gov and house.gov to demand a vote on the PRESS Act, which passed the House in 2024 but stalled in the Senate. When you contact your senator, say specifically: The PRESS Act passed the House with bipartisan support. Do you support bringing it to a Senate floor vote? If not, why not? Ask for a written response. Track the bill's status at congress.gov by searching 'PRESS Act.' Bills that pass the House and stall in the Senate typically need sustained constituent pressure to move.
civic action
Look up your state's reporter shield law and contact your state legislature to strengthen it
State shield laws are the primary practical protection for most journalists covering local government. Strengthening them is achievable through state legislative action, and the gaps in most current state statutes are well-documented.
Forty-nine states have some form of reporter shield protection at the state level. Look up your state's statute through the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press at rcfp.org, which maintains a state-by-state guide. Then contact your state legislature's judiciary committee to strengthen it. Ask: Does our state's shield law cover digital journalists, freelancers, and news websites, or only traditional newsroom employees? Gaps in coverage leave many working journalists unprotected. State legislation is often easier to pass than federal law — and stronger state shields protect local journalism even when federal protection is absent.
research
Understand how source protection makes investigative journalism work and what happens when it ends
The relationship between source protection and investigative reporting is causal, not rhetorical. Reading documented cases where source exposure stopped investigations gives citizens evidence for evaluating press freedom debates.
Source protection enables reporting on government misconduct. When sources fear exposure, investigative journalism loses its ability to document what government officials do in secret. Read the Reporters Committee's reporting on the history of journalist subpoenas at rcfp.org to understand the concrete cases where source exposure ended careers, endangered lives, or stopped investigations cold. This is not an abstract press freedom argument — it is a documented pattern of how governments use subpoena power to identify and retaliate against people who talk to journalists.