Updated

A federal appeals court ruled that the Trump administration cannot use a sweeping request to obtain journalists' LinkedIn messages with confidential sources, Ars Technica reported on November 11, 2026. The ruling says confidential sources are the lifeblood of a free press. The three-judge panel, in a unanimous opinion by Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III, rejected LinkedIn's bid to quash the secrecy order entirely but sent the case back to the district court to substantially narrow it. The Justice Department had sought 18 months of communications from journalists who collectively published more than 1,000 articles, many with no relationship to its leak investigation into top-secret military information. The judges said the request could chill dissent and press freedom, and that the lower court had failed to weigh LinkedIn's burden and First Amendment claims. The secrecy order had barred LinkedIn from telling anyone about the request for a year, leaving journalists unaware their rights were affected. The court ordered the district court to consider LinkedIn's proposal to notify a single attorney at the news outlet under investigation, and said the government must explain why that narrow disclosure would compromise its probe. Microsoft, which owns LinkedIn, called it an important ruling for privacy and press freedom. The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, which backed LinkedIn, said the ruling would be widely cited.