The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press

Case Number: 1:26-cv-00221 Court: U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee Client: Sarkes Tarzian Background: On July 16, 2015, Mohammad Youssef Abdulazeez opened fire at two military facilities in Chattanooga, Tennessee, killing five service members before being killed in a shootout with police. The FBI has publicly said it believes Abdulazeez acted alone.

Case Number: 26507 Court: Weakley County Chancery Court Clients: The Weakley County Examiner, Shannon Taylor Merrell Background: In November 2025, The Weakley County Examiner submitted a public records request to Weakley County Schools seeking access to a settlement agreement it had reached months earlier with a former student who had accused the school district of repeatedly discriminating against her because of her disabilities.

Case Number: 2:26-mc-00005 Court: U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia Client: Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press Background: In August 2026, The New York Times reported that one of its freelance reporters, Matthew Cole, was fighting a subpoena seeking to force him to reveal his confidential sources for a story he wrote for the newspaper about a failed Navy SEAL Team 6 mission in North Korea during Donald Trump’s first term as president.

The Reporters Committee is condemning both a Louisiana judge’s decision to eject the press and public from his courtroom and the handcuffing of a reporter and his attorney who tried to object to the unconstitutional closure. The incident occurred on July 2, 2026, in Judge Leon Roche’s Orleans parish courtroom, where a grand jury was set to return an indictment of the state’s attorney general.

Court: U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota Date Filed: Aug. 12, 2026 Background: Following their coverage of an immigration enforcement protest at a Minnesota church in January 2026, independent journalists Georgia Fort and Don Lemon were arrested by federal authorities and criminally charged with conspiring to violate a federal law protecting the right of religious freedom at a place of worship.

The Reporters Committee, joined by 45 news and media organizations, is urging a federal court in Minnesota to throw out indictments against independent journalists Georgia Fort and Don Lemon related to their coverage of an immigration enforcement protest at a St. Paul church earlier this year.

Last year, New Hampshire Bulletin reporter William Skipworth published a three-part investigation that revealed systemic failures and abuse, neglect, and deaths in the state’s taxpayer-funded disability care network. The series had an immediate impact, sparking legislative reforms in New Hampshire and investigations from state and federally funded watchdogs.

Nonprofit news outlet Blue Surveillance, with free legal support from a Reporters Committee attorney, recently obtained police body-worn camera footage showing an officer in central Colorado holding a gun to an unarmed man’s head and threatening to shoot him. The Wheat Ridge Police Department initially refused to disclose the recording in response to a public records request filed by Blue Surveillance Executive Director Andrew Fraieli.

Case Number: 782-658 Court: 19th Judicial District Court for East Baton Rouge Parish Clients: The Lens, Delaney Nolan Background: In May 2026, reporter Delaney Nolan of the nonprofit news outlet The Lens submitted a public records request to the Louisiana Governor’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness seeking an unredacted copy of an agreement it reached with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement related to a state prison that houses immigrants detained by ICE.

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche is a U.S. Senate floor vote away from permanently serving as the nation’s top law enforcement official. On Tuesday, the Senate Judiciary Committee advanced Blanche’s attorney general nomination to the full Senate.