New York Court Won’t Order Fox Reporter to Testify, Shoring Up State Shield Law

A New York State shield law protecting journalists was bolstered when the state’s highest court refused to require a Fox News reporter to return to Colorado to testify in the case of James E. Holmes, the man accused of shooting 12 people in July 2012 in a movie theater in Aurora. In unusually strong language, the New York Court of Appeals wrote, “There is no principle more fundamental or well-established than the right of a reporter to refuse to divulge a confidential source.” First Amendment experts said that the ruling, written by a 4 to 3 majority on the court, could make New York, already the home to numerous media companies, a kind of safe haven for journalists.