DC Appeals Court Blocks Fines Against WVU Journalism Professor
This post is not about business litigation, but about a situation playing out in the federal courts in Washington, D.C. that presents some significant issues in media law. Toni Locy, a former USA Today reporter who holds the Shott Chair of Journalism at the Perley Isaac Reed School of Journalism at West Virginia University, is currently embroiled in a struggle to protect the anonymity of her sources, without putting herself in jeopardy.
For background about Locy's situation, here is a link to The Wall Street Journal Law Blog’s stories and to the Associated Press story in the Washington Post. (In the interest of disclosure, I worked with Locy at the Daily Athenaeum, the student newspaper at WVU, many years ago. She was the managing editor, while I was a lowly staff writer.) When Locy worked for USA Today, she wrote about Dr. Steven Hatfill, who was alleged to have played a role in the 2001 anthrax attacks. In fact, in 2002, the FBI and then-Attorney General John Ashcroft described Hatfill as a “person of interest.” Hatfill did not have any involvement in the attacks, however, and filed suit in the District of Columbia against the United States for violating his privacy by leaking information to the press. Hatfill v. Mukasey, et al., Civil Action No. 1:03-CV-1793 (RBW). As part of his lawsuit, Hatfill wants to know the names of Locy’s sources at the FBI and the Department of Justice.
United States District Judge Reggie B. Walton (who presided over the I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby trial, during which former New York Times reporter Judith Miller was jailed for 85 days for refusing to cooperate with Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald’s investigation) ordered Locy to reveal her sources. She refused to do so, however, and on February 19, Judge Walton held her in contempt. At that time, he threatened to fine her, beginning at midnight yesterday, $500 per day for seven days, increasing thereafter to $1,000 per day for seven days, and finally increasing to $5,000 per day for seven days if she continued to refuse to identify her sources. He also threatened to order that she had to pay the fines personally and could receive no financial assistance from USA Today or any media organization or anyone else. That requirement is no small matter, considering that she could be facing fines of at least $45,500, but makes only $75,000 per year.
Last Friday, Judge Walton entered an order assessing the fines as described above and requiring Locy to pay them personally,"to maximize the potential that Ms. Locy will ultimately comply with the Court's order that she reveal her sources at the DOJ and FBI who disclosed information to her about the anthrax investigation." He also refused to stay payment of the fines while Locy’s lawyers appealed his ruling .
Locy’s lawyers yesterday filed an emergency motion to stay with the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, which entered an order this afternoon staying the payment of the fines while she prosecutes an appeal. A hearing is scheduled before Judge Walton on April 3.