{ "title": "Ladder: surveillance and subpoenas, in North America", "canonical_url": "https://thewaronnews.com/ladders/surveillance_and_subpoenas?continent=north-america", "filters": { "continent": "north-america" }, "counts_caveat": "The number of entries reflects the depth of this record, not the severity of a country's conduct.", "tactic": { "slug": "surveillance_and_subpoenas", "name": "Surveillance and subpoenas", "definition": "A government collects journalists' communications or records, often to learn who their sources are. Methods include subpoenas (court orders to hand over records or to testify), search warrants, seizure of phones and notes, demands to telephone and internet companies, and spyware placed on reporters' devices.", "url": "https://thewaronnews.com/tactics/surveillance_and_subpoenas" }, "focal_case": "US", "count": 17, "stages": [ { "stage": "pressure", "name": "Pressure", "definition": "Using state power short of prosecution to change coverage: regulatory threats, licence reviews, funding cuts, lawsuits by officials, official \"fake news\" or \"foreign agent\" labels, advertising pressure, tax audits.", "rungs": [ { "slug": "1953-us-wechsler-mccarthy-subpoena", "title": "United States: Senator Joseph McCarthy's subcommittee questions New York Post editor James Wechsler, 1953", "occurred_on": "1953-01-01", "occurred_on_precision": "year", "stage": "pressure", "focal_case": true, "country": "US", "country_name": "United States", "continent": "north-america", "rsf": { "index": "RSF World Press Freedom Index", "year": 2026, "rank": 64, "of": 180, "label": "RSF 2026 rank: 64th of 180", "source_url": "https://rsf.org/en/index" }, "leader_slug": "dwight-d-eisenhower", "leader_name": "Dwight D. Eisenhower", "what_was_done": "In 1953, the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, a Senate panel led by Senator Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin, questioned New York Post editor James Wechsler about his membership in the Young Communist League in the 1930s.", "outcome": "unknown", "outcome_on": null, "outcome_note": "McCarthy's subcommittee did not formally sanction Wechsler, who remained editor of the New York Post, though he lost a television spot the following year after being called a \"controversial personality.\"", "ladder_note": null, "sources_count": 3, "tactic_primary": "surveillance_and_subpoenas", "tactics": [ "surveillance_and_subpoenas" ], "url": "https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/1953-us-wechsler-mccarthy-subpoena" }, { "slug": "1971-us-zurcher-stanford-daily-newsroom-search", "title": "United States police search a student newspaper's offices for photographs of a protest", "occurred_on": "1971-04-12", "occurred_on_precision": "day", "stage": "pressure", "focal_case": true, "country": "US", "country_name": "United States", "continent": "north-america", "rsf": { "index": "RSF World Press Freedom Index", "year": 2026, "rank": 64, "of": 180, "label": "RSF 2026 rank: 64th of 180", "source_url": "https://rsf.org/en/index" }, "leader_slug": "ronald-reagan", "leader_name": "Ronald Reagan", "what_was_done": "On April 12, 1971, Palo Alto police searched the newsroom of The Stanford Daily, a student newspaper, for photographs of a clash between demonstrators and police at Stanford University Hospital, though no member of the paper's staff was suspected of a crime.", "outcome": "upheld", "outcome_on": "1978-05-31", "outcome_note": "The Supreme Court of the United States ruled 5 to 3 that the search of the Daily's newsroom did not violate the First or Fourth Amendments.", "ladder_note": null, "sources_count": 2, "tactic_primary": "surveillance_and_subpoenas", "tactics": [ "surveillance_and_subpoenas" ], "url": "https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/1971-us-zurcher-stanford-daily-newsroom-search" }, { "slug": "1971-us-nixon-enemies-list", "title": "Nixon White House compiles an enemies list naming journalists for official pressure", "occurred_on": "1971-08-16", "occurred_on_precision": "day", "stage": "pressure", "focal_case": true, "country": "US", "country_name": "United States", "continent": "north-america", "rsf": { "index": "RSF World Press Freedom Index", "year": 2026, "rank": 64, "of": 180, "label": "RSF 2026 rank: 64th of 180", "source_url": "https://rsf.org/en/index" }, "leader_slug": "richard-nixon", "leader_name": "Richard Nixon", "what_was_done": "White House Counsel John Dean wrote a memo on how to use federal agencies against President Nixon's political opponents, and the resulting list of more than 200 names included journalists such as CBS News correspondent Daniel Schorr.", "outcome": "reversed", "outcome_on": "1973-06-27", "outcome_note": "The list became public during John Dean's Senate Watergate Committee testimony, discrediting the effort as Nixon's presidency unraveled over the wider Watergate scandal.", "ladder_note": null, "sources_count": 2, "tactic_primary": "surveillance_and_subpoenas", "tactics": [ "funding_and_ownership_pressure", "surveillance_and_subpoenas" ], "url": "https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/1971-us-nixon-enemies-list" }, { "slug": "1971-nixon-white-house-compiles-enemies-list", "title": "United States: Nixon White House \"enemies list\" naming journalists, September 1971", "occurred_on": "1971-09-09", "occurred_on_precision": "day", "stage": "pressure", "focal_case": true, "country": "US", "country_name": "United States", "continent": "north-america", "rsf": { "index": "RSF World Press Freedom Index", "year": 2026, "rank": 64, "of": 180, "label": "RSF 2026 rank: 64th of 180", "source_url": "https://rsf.org/en/index" }, "leader_slug": "richard-nixon", "leader_name": "Richard Nixon", "what_was_done": "On September 9, 1971, the office of Charles Colson, special counsel to the president of the United States, Richard Nixon, sent White House Counsel John Dean, the president's lawyer on official matters, a memorandum naming 20 people as an initial \"enemies list.\"", "outcome": "unknown", "outcome_on": null, "outcome_note": "No ruling or formal rescission applies; the lists became public during the Watergate investigations of 1973 to 1974.", "ladder_note": null, "sources_count": 2, "tactic_primary": "surveillance_and_subpoenas", "tactics": [ "surveillance_and_subpoenas" ], "url": "https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/1971-nixon-white-house-compiles-enemies-list" }, { "slug": "2025-doj-rescinds-media-subpoena-guidelines", "title": "United States: Department of Justice rescission of rules limiting subpoenas of journalists, April 2025", "occurred_on": "2025-04-25", "occurred_on_precision": "day", "stage": "pressure", "focal_case": true, "country": "US", "country_name": "United States", "continent": "north-america", "rsf": { "index": "RSF World Press Freedom Index", "year": 2026, "rank": 64, "of": 180, "label": "RSF 2026 rank: 64th of 180", "source_url": "https://rsf.org/en/index" }, "leader_slug": "donald-trump", "leader_name": "Donald Trump", "what_was_done": "On April 25, 2025, the Attorney General of the United States, Pam Bondi, head of the Department of Justice, the federal department that prosecutes federal crimes, rescinded rules adopted in 2021 and 2022 under her predecessor, Merrick Garland, that barred prosecutors from seeking reporters' records…", "outcome": "sustained", "outcome_on": "2025-04-25", "outcome_note": "In effect since 2025-04-25; the sources cited report no restoration of the earlier rules (as of 2026-09-22).", "ladder_note": null, "sources_count": 1, "tactic_primary": "surveillance_and_subpoenas", "tactics": [ "surveillance_and_subpoenas" ], "url": "https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/2025-doj-rescinds-media-subpoena-guidelines" } ] }, { "stage": "punish", "name": "Punish", "definition": "Legal or physical action against individual journalists or sources: subpoenas and record seizures, prosecutions, arrests, detention, expulsions, visa denials, assault where a government actor is involved.", "rungs": [ { "slug": "1955-us-eastland-subcommittee-subpoenas-new-york-times", "title": "United States Senate panel subpoenas dozens of New York Times journalists over Communist ties", "occurred_on": "1955-11-01", "occurred_on_precision": "month", "stage": "punish", "focal_case": true, "country": "US", "country_name": "United States", "continent": "north-america", "rsf": { "index": "RSF World Press Freedom Index", "year": 2026, "rank": 64, "of": 180, "label": "RSF 2026 rank: 64th of 180", "source_url": "https://rsf.org/en/index" }, "leader_slug": "dwight-d-eisenhower", "leader_name": "Dwight D. Eisenhower", "what_was_done": "The Senate Internal Security Subcommittee, led by Senator James Eastland, issued 35 subpoenas over past or present Communist Party ties in the press, and 26 of them went to New York Times staff.", "outcome": "sustained", "outcome_on": "1956-12-01", "outcome_note": "The dismissals and resignations at The New York Times and other papers were not reversed; the paper said at year's end it had made no further dismissals beyond the initial cases.", "ladder_note": null, "sources_count": 1, "tactic_primary": "surveillance_and_subpoenas", "tactics": [ "surveillance_and_subpoenas" ], "url": "https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/1955-us-eastland-subcommittee-subpoenas-new-york-times" }, { "slug": "1972-us-branzburg-v-hayes-reporters-privilege", "title": "United States Supreme Court rules reporters have no privilege to refuse grand jury subpoenas", "occurred_on": "1969-01-01", "occurred_on_precision": "year", "stage": "punish", "focal_case": true, "country": "US", "country_name": "United States", "continent": "north-america", "rsf": { "index": "RSF World Press Freedom Index", "year": 2026, "rank": 64, "of": 180, "label": "RSF 2026 rank: 64th of 180", "source_url": "https://rsf.org/en/index" }, "leader_slug": "richard-nixon", "leader_name": "Richard Nixon", "what_was_done": "Louisville Courier-Journal reporter Paul Branzburg was subpoenaed by a Kentucky grand jury, a body that investigates possible crimes, after he wrote about drug users he had observed.", "outcome": "upheld", "outcome_on": "1972-06-29", "outcome_note": "The Supreme Court upheld the grand jury's power to compel Branzburg's testimony 5 to 4, finding no First Amendment reporter's privilege.", "ladder_note": null, "sources_count": 1, "tactic_primary": "surveillance_and_subpoenas", "tactics": [ "surveillance_and_subpoenas" ], "url": "https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/1972-us-branzburg-v-hayes-reporters-privilege" }, { "slug": "2005-us-judith-miller-jailed-plame-source", "title": "New York Times reporter Judith Miller jailed for refusing to name a confidential source in the Valerie Plame affair", "occurred_on": "2005-07-06", "occurred_on_precision": "day", "stage": "punish", "focal_case": true, "country": "US", "country_name": "United States", "continent": "north-america", "rsf": { "index": "RSF World Press Freedom Index", "year": 2026, "rank": 64, "of": 180, "label": "RSF 2026 rank: 64th of 180", "source_url": "https://rsf.org/en/index" }, "leader_slug": "george-w-bush", "leader_name": "George W. Bush", "what_was_done": "A federal judge jailed New York Times reporter Judith Miller for contempt after she refused to tell a grand jury who told her the identity of CIA officer Valerie Plame, part of a special counsel's investigation into the leak.", "outcome": "upheld", "outcome_on": "2005-09-29", "outcome_note": "Courts upheld the contempt order and subpoena; Miller served 85 days before her source freed her to testify, and prosecutors later convicted Libby of perjury.", "ladder_note": null, "sources_count": 2, "tactic_primary": "surveillance_and_subpoenas", "tactics": [ "secrets_and_espionage_laws", "surveillance_and_subpoenas" ], "url": "https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/2005-us-judith-miller-jailed-plame-source" }, { "slug": "2013-us-doj-seizes-ap-phone-records", "title": "United States Justice Department secretly seizes two months of Associated Press phone records", "occurred_on": "2013-05-13", "occurred_on_precision": "day", "stage": "punish", "focal_case": true, "country": "US", "country_name": "United States", "continent": "north-america", "rsf": { "index": "RSF World Press Freedom Index", "year": 2026, "rank": 64, "of": 180, "label": "RSF 2026 rank: 64th of 180", "source_url": "https://rsf.org/en/index" }, "leader_slug": "barack-obama", "leader_name": "Barack Obama", "what_was_done": "The U.S. Justice Department secretly obtained two months of telephone records from more than 20 Associated Press phone lines during a leak investigation, notifying the news agency only after the fact; AP called the scope of the seizure unjustified.", "outcome": "sustained", "outcome_on": "2013-07-12", "outcome_note": "The records were not returned and no journalist or source was charged; the Justice Department issued revised media-subpoena guidelines on July 12, 2013, after the disclosure.", "ladder_note": null, "sources_count": 2, "tactic_primary": "surveillance_and_subpoenas", "tactics": [ "surveillance_and_subpoenas" ], "url": "https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/2013-us-doj-seizes-ap-phone-records" }, { "slug": "2013-us-doj-names-fox-reporter-co-conspirator", "title": "United States search warrant names Fox News reporter James Rosen a possible co-conspirator in a leak case", "occurred_on": "2013-05-20", "occurred_on_precision": "day", "stage": "punish", "focal_case": true, "country": "US", "country_name": "United States", "continent": "north-america", "rsf": { "index": "RSF World Press Freedom Index", "year": 2026, "rank": 64, "of": 180, "label": "RSF 2026 rank: 64th of 180", "source_url": "https://rsf.org/en/index" }, "leader_slug": "barack-obama", "leader_name": "Barack Obama", "what_was_done": "A 2010 FBI search-warrant affidavit, unsealed in 2013, described Fox News reporter James Rosen as a possible co-conspirator in violating the Espionage Act because he sought classified information from a State Department analyst, and used that theory to obtain his private emails.", "outcome": "sustained", "outcome_on": "2013-07-12", "outcome_note": "The warrant was not withdrawn from the record; Kim pleaded guilty in 2014 and Rosen was never charged. Holder's July 2013 guidelines later restricted subpoenas naming reporters as suspects.", "ladder_note": null, "sources_count": 2, "tactic_primary": "surveillance_and_subpoenas", "tactics": [ "secrets_and_espionage_laws", "surveillance_and_subpoenas" ], "url": "https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/2013-us-doj-names-fox-reporter-co-conspirator" }, { "slug": "2013-obama-doj-charges-eight-under-espionage-act", "title": "United States: Espionage Act prosecutions of sources for leaks to the press, 2009 to 2013", "occurred_on": "2013-10-10", "occurred_on_precision": "day", "stage": "punish", "focal_case": true, "country": "US", "country_name": "United States", "continent": "north-america", "rsf": { "index": "RSF World Press Freedom Index", "year": 2026, "rank": 64, "of": 180, "label": "RSF 2026 rank: 64th of 180", "source_url": "https://rsf.org/en/index" }, "leader_slug": "barack-obama", "leader_name": "Barack Obama", "what_was_done": "A report by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), a non-profit organization in New York that documents cases of journalists imprisoned or killed worldwide, published on October 10, 2013, found that since 2009 the United States Department of Justice had brought felony charges against six gover…", "outcome": "unknown", "outcome_on": null, "outcome_note": "The record documents the prosecutions as a group; the outcome of each case is not recorded here.", "ladder_note": null, "sources_count": 4, "tactic_primary": "secrets_and_espionage_laws", "tactics": [ "secrets_and_espionage_laws", "surveillance_and_subpoenas" ], "url": "https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/2013-obama-doj-charges-eight-under-espionage-act" }, { "slug": "2014-us-james-risen-subpoena-jeffrey-sterling", "title": "United States pursues New York Times reporter James Risen's testimony for years before dropping its demand for his source", "occurred_on": "2014-10-17", "occurred_on_precision": "day", "stage": "punish", "focal_case": true, "country": "US", "country_name": "United States", "continent": "north-america", "rsf": { "index": "RSF World Press Freedom Index", "year": 2026, "rank": 64, "of": 180, "label": "RSF 2026 rank: 64th of 180", "source_url": "https://rsf.org/en/index" }, "leader_slug": "barack-obama", "leader_name": "Barack Obama", "what_was_done": "For years, federal prosecutors sought New York Times reporter James Risen's testimony identifying a confidential source in a CIA leak case; the Supreme Court declined to hear his appeal, but Attorney General Eric Holder ultimately chose not to force him to testify or name the source.", "outcome": "reversed", "outcome_on": "2014-10-17", "outcome_note": "After the Supreme Court declined to hear Risen's appeal, the Justice Department chose not to compel his testimony or the identity of his source; Sterling was convicted without it.", "ladder_note": null, "sources_count": 2, "tactic_primary": "surveillance_and_subpoenas", "tactics": [ "secrets_and_espionage_laws", "surveillance_and_subpoenas" ], "url": "https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/2014-us-james-risen-subpoena-jeffrey-sterling" }, { "slug": "2021-doj-bans-seizing-reporters-records-garland", "title": "Justice Department bars seizing reporters' phone and email records", "occurred_on": "2021-07-19", "occurred_on_precision": "day", "stage": "punish", "focal_case": true, "country": "US", "country_name": "United States", "continent": "north-america", "rsf": { "index": "RSF World Press Freedom Index", "year": 2026, "rank": 64, "of": 180, "label": "RSF 2026 rank: 64th of 180", "source_url": "https://rsf.org/en/index" }, "leader_slug": "joe-biden", "leader_name": "Joe Biden", "what_was_done": "After it came to light that the Trump-era Justice Department had secretly obtained the phone and email records of reporters at The New York Times, The Washington Post and CNN, Attorney General Merrick Garland issued a policy barring prosecutors from using subpoenas or other compulsory process again…", "outcome": "reversed", "outcome_on": "2025-04-25", "outcome_note": "Attorney General Bondi rescinded these protections in April 2025, restoring the department's earlier discretionary balancing test.", "ladder_note": null, "sources_count": 2, "tactic_primary": "surveillance_and_subpoenas", "tactics": [ "surveillance_and_subpoenas" ], "url": "https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/2021-doj-bans-seizing-reporters-records-garland" }, { "slug": "2021-fbi-raids-project-veritas-founder-okeefe", "title": "FBI raids Project Veritas founder's home over Ashley Biden diary investigation", "occurred_on": "2021-11-06", "occurred_on_precision": "day", "stage": "punish", "focal_case": true, "country": "US", "country_name": "United States", "continent": "north-america", "rsf": { "index": "RSF World Press Freedom Index", "year": 2026, "rank": 64, "of": 180, "label": "RSF 2026 rank: 64th of 180", "source_url": "https://rsf.org/en/index" }, "leader_slug": "joe-biden", "leader_name": "Joe Biden", "what_was_done": "FBI agents raided Project Veritas founder James O'Keefe's New York home and seized his phones as part of an investigation into the alleged theft of a diary belonging to Ashley Biden, President Biden's daughter, which the group had reported on; O'Keefe was never charged.", "outcome": "unknown", "outcome_on": null, "outcome_note": "No charges were ever filed against O'Keefe; a court later allowed prosecutors to review the seized phones.", "ladder_note": null, "sources_count": 1, "tactic_primary": "surveillance_and_subpoenas", "tactics": [ "detention_and_violence", "surveillance_and_subpoenas" ], "url": "https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/2021-fbi-raids-project-veritas-founder-okeefe" }, { "slug": "2023-marion-county-record-raid-kansas", "title": "Police raid Marion County Record newsroom and publisher's home in Kansas", "occurred_on": "2023-08-11", "occurred_on_precision": "day", "stage": "punish", "focal_case": true, "country": "US", "country_name": "United States", "continent": "north-america", "rsf": { "index": "RSF World Press Freedom Index", "year": 2026, "rank": 64, "of": 180, "label": "RSF 2026 rank: 64th of 180", "source_url": "https://rsf.org/en/index" }, "leader_slug": "laura-kelly", "leader_name": "Laura Kelly", "what_was_done": "Police in Marion, Kansas, led by Chief Gideon Cody, raided the Marion County Record's newsroom and publisher Eric Meyer's home, seizing computers, phones and files, on a warrant tied to an identity-theft investigation.", "outcome": "reversed", "outcome_on": "2024-08-05", "outcome_note": "Special prosecutors found no evidence Record reporters had committed a crime and moved to charge former police chief Gideon Cody.", "ladder_note": null, "sources_count": 3, "tactic_primary": "surveillance_and_subpoenas", "tactics": [ "detention_and_violence", "surveillance_and_subpoenas" ], "url": "https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/2023-marion-county-record-raid-kansas" }, { "slug": "2026-cbp-seizes-grayzone-editor-phones-airport", "title": "Customs officers seize Grayzone editor's phones at Virginia airport over Iran reporting", "occurred_on": "2026-07-10", "occurred_on_precision": "day", "stage": "punish", "focal_case": true, "country": "US", "country_name": "United States", "continent": "north-america", "rsf": { "index": "RSF World Press Freedom Index", "year": 2026, "rank": 64, "of": 180, "label": "RSF 2026 rank: 64th of 180", "source_url": "https://rsf.org/en/index" }, "leader_slug": "donald-trump", "leader_name": "Donald Trump", "what_was_done": "U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers stopped Grayzone editor Max Blumenthal at Washington Dulles Airport, questioned him about his reporting trips to Iran, and seized both of his phones without his consent; the phones were returned a week later after he sued.", "outcome": "reversed", "outcome_on": "2026-07-17", "outcome_note": "Customs returned Blumenthal's phones after he sued; litigation continued into discovery over possible data extraction.", "ladder_note": null, "sources_count": 1, "tactic_primary": "surveillance_and_subpoenas", "tactics": [ "surveillance_and_subpoenas" ], "url": "https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/2026-cbp-seizes-grayzone-editor-phones-airport" }, { "slug": "2017-mexico-aristegui-pegasus-spyware", "title": "Mexico: journalist Carmen Aristegui receives Pegasus spyware through phishing texts", "occurred_on": "2017-06-19", "occurred_on_precision": "day", "stage": "punish", "focal_case": false, "country": "MX", "country_name": "Mexico", "continent": "north-america", "rsf": null, "leader_slug": "enrique-pena-nieto", "leader_name": "Enrique Pena Nieto", "what_was_done": "Citizen Lab, R3D and Article 19 documented Pegasus spyware sent to Mexican investigative journalists Carmen Aristegui and Carlos Loret de Mola through phishing text messages, which the Mexican government denied having sent.", "outcome": "unknown", "outcome_on": "2017-06-20", "outcome_note": "The government denied responsibility and Citizen Lab's report found no conclusive evidence establishing who sent the spyware, according to the source reviewed.", "ladder_note": "Investigative journalists' phones were secretly infected with spyware through fabricated personal warnings, with government responsibility denied and never conclusively established.", "sources_count": 2, "tactic_primary": "surveillance_and_subpoenas", "tactics": [ "surveillance_and_subpoenas" ], "url": "https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/2017-mexico-aristegui-pegasus-spyware" } ] } ], "downloads": { "csv": "https://thewaronnews.com/ladders/surveillance_and_subpoenas?continent=north-america&format=csv", "json": "https://thewaronnews.com/ladders/surveillance_and_subpoenas.json?continent=north-america", "md": "https://thewaronnews.com/ladders/surveillance_and_subpoenas.md?continent=north-america" }, "license": { "name": "CC BY 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/" } }