The Alabama Supreme Court advised a federal judge on Friday that the state’s “shield statute” doesn’t protect a reporter from having to reveal some information related to a source.
Two questions were sent by a Northern District of Alabama U.S. District Judge Annemarie Axon to the Alabama Supreme Court related to a defamation and invasion of privacy lawsuit brought by former Alabama basketball walk-on Kai Spears against the New York Times.
According to court documents, the lawsuit was filed by Spears in May 2023 after Billy Witz, a New York Times reporter, falsely identified Spears at the scene of the murder of Jamea Harris in January 2023 in Tuscaloosa. Former Alabama basketball player Darius Miles has been charged with capital murder and has pleaded not guilty. He is still awaiting trial. The shooting received national media attention due to multiple Alabama basketball players allegedly being present at the scene of the crime.
Shortly after Spears filed a lawsuit against the newspaper, the New York Times acknowledged that its original article claiming Spears was at the crime scene was incorrect.
The two certified questions both sought an answer regarding the scope of § 12-21-142, the state’s shield statute. Section 12-21-142 states: "No person engaged in, connected with or employed on any newspaper, radio broadcasting station or television station, while engaged in a news-gathering capacity, shall be compelled to disclose in any legal proceeding or trial, before any court or before a grand jury of any court, before the presiding officer of any tribunal or his agent or agents or before any committee of the Legislature or elsewhere the sources of any information procured or obtained by him and published in the newspaper, broadcast by any broadcasting station, or televised by any television station on which he is engaged, connected with or employed."
The Alabama Supreme Court declined to answer the first question: "Is the identity of a source, whose information is published online by a corporation that also publishes a newspaper, protected from compelled disclosure by a court?"
The second question to the court was: "Does the Shield Statute protect any and all information that could lead to the identification of a source whose identity is protected from compelled disclosure under Alabama's Shield Statute?"
A majority of justices answered “no” to the second question.
“For the foregoing reasons, the short answer to the second certified question, as rephrased, is "no" -- § 12-21-142 does not "protect any and all information that could reasonably lead to the identification of a source whose identity is protected from compelled disclosure." Rather, the plain language of § 12-21-142 provides that the reporter's privilege protects only "the sources of any information … published in the newspaper," and we therefore hold that this privilege applies only to information that would inevitably reveal the identity of a confidential source,” Alabama Supreme Court Associate Justice Chris McCool said in his answer released on Friday. “That is the holding that most narrowly intrudes upon the common law and is the only holding that this Court can without question say does not go beyond the intent of the Legislature as expressed in the language of § 12-21-142.”
Alabama Supreme Court Associate Justice Brady Mendheim Jr. dissented from the rest of the court on the question.
“After reviewing the parties' submissions and in light of the plain language of § 12-21-142, I am not convinced that this Court can provide an answer that would be determinative of the cause, especially in light of the limited information provided regarding the disputed discovery issues, see Ex parte Affinity Hosp., LLC, 414 So. 3d 95, 98-99 (Ala. 2024) (discussing the fact-intensive nature of discovery issues when a statutory privilege is asserted), and the remaining issues regarding the application of the reporter's privilege under the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, which the Times also asserted,” Mendheim said.
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