Whether or not embattled FoxNews.com reporter Jana Winter will spend time in jail, is now up to the New York Court of Appeals.
On Tuesday, Winter’s attorney Christopher Handman asked the Court to protect her from revealing her sources, arguing that New York’s shield law protects his client, even though the case she was covering was happening in Colorado. Winter reported on the existence of a notebook kept by Aurora, Colorado movie theater shooter James Holmes which Holmes sent to his psychiatrist.
“You don’t become the global leader of news when you confine your protections to the metro desk,” said Handman.
Chief Judge Jonathan Lippman shot back, “You want us to say that this journalist cannot be called to Colorado for work she did in the state?”
Handman argued that New York’s shield law provides “categorical immunity,” adding that the most important thing is Winter’s location, reporting from and for a company in New York state.
According to Capital New York which had a reporter in the courtroom, Holmes’s attorney drew connections with Winter and other professionals, claiming that if the law covers journalists, it also covers lawyers, priests, and doctors, and that a priest would have to testify in Colorado.
If the New York Court declines to dismiss the Colorado subpoena compelling her to testify there, she will have to testify on January 3, where she will have to reveal her sources or face a jail sentence.
She has previously said she won’t reveal her sources, even if it means going to jail.