Court ruling limits Trump administration's access to LinkedIn records

A U.S. appeals court has narrowed a court order requiring LinkedIn to hand over journalists' records to the Trump administration as part of an investigation into a leak of classified military information, ruling that the request threatens press freedom and source confidentiality.

The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals in the United States issued a unanimous decision narrowing a court order that required LinkedIn to provide the administration of President Donald Trump with records of journalists' communications, as part of an investigation into a leak of classified military information. The three-judge panel found that the government's request, in its current form, poses a threat to press freedom and the confidentiality of sources. The court sent the case back to a lower federal court to reconsider the scope of the requested records, ensuring that journalistic sources unrelated to the investigation are not revealed. The court rejected LinkedIn's request to quash the disclosure orders entirely, affirming that the government has a legitimate interest in investigating the leak of national security information, but that this does not grant it unlimited access to journalists' records. The case stems from an investigation opened by the Trump administration after a media outlet (not named in court documents) published a report about a highly classified U.S. military operation in a foreign country. The government obtained a court order requiring LinkedIn to provide records of the journalists' communications over an 18-month period, during which they published nearly a thousand articles on various topics. The appeals court found that the broad timeframe of the request could reveal the identities of confidential sources with whom the journalists communicated regarding other investigations and topics unrelated to the leak the authorities are trying to trace.