Supreme Court Allows Daily Fine on Reporter to Proceed in Privacy Act Lawsuit

The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday declined to intervene in an order that would fine former Fox News reporter Catherine Herridge $800 per day if she refuses to reveal her confidential source. The court rejected her emergency appeal to stay the fine, which stems from a civil contempt finding in a lawsuit brought by scientist Yanping Chen against the U.S.

Government. Chief Justice John Roberts had earlier issued a short-term hold on the fine while the justices considered the appeal. Justice Brett Kavanaugh supported granting a stay, but the court denied the application.

Herridge published a series of stories for Fox News in 2017 that examined Chen’s ties to the Chinese military and questioned whether a professional school Chen founded in Virginia was used to obtain information about American servicemembers. The reporting drew on materials that Chen’s lawyers say were leaked from an FBI investigation into statements she made on immigration forms about work on a Chinese astronaut program.

Those materials included snippets of an FBI interview summary, personal photographs, and information from her immigration forms and an internal FBI PowerPoint presentation.

A six-year FBI probe into Chen never produced criminal charges. In 2018 Chen sued the FBI and the Justice Department, alleging violation of the Privacy Act. She stated that leaks of her personal information led to negative media attention, hate mail, and death threats.

U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper ordered Herridge to answer questions about her sources during a deposition. The judge ruled that Chen’s need to identify the source for her lawsuit outweighed Herridge’s interest in protecting it.