Supreme Court denies stay, reporter faces $800 daily fine

The Supreme Court has declined to intervene in a case that will require veteran investigative journalist Catherine Herridge to either reveal a confidential source or face escalating daily fines, a decision that has alarmed media advocates. The court, in an order issued on Thursday, July 2, 2026, denied Herridge's emergency appeal to stay a lower court's contempt order. Justice Brett Kavanaugh indicated he would have granted the request, but the majority did not provide a reason for the denial.

The case stems from a series of articles Herridge published in 2017 while working for Fox News. The reports examined Yanping Chen, a Chinese American scientist and founder of a Virginia professional school, and her alleged ties to the Chinese military. The stories were based on information from an FBI investigation into whether Chen made false statements on immigration forms regarding her past work on a Chinese astronaut program. The six-year probe concluded in 2018 without any criminal charges being filed against Chen.

Later that year, Chen sued the FBI, the Justice Department, and other federal agencies, alleging that officials violated the Privacy Act by leaking her private...