Today the Los Angeles Superior Court stopped an attempt by a celebrity musician to drag a journalist into court to reveal her sources in a celebrity divorce case.
Queens of the Stone Age frontman Josh Homme is going through a tough divorce from Brody Dalle, frontwoman of the Distillers. A judge ordered their children to go to a “reunification camp” with Homme and when one of the kids refused to get in the car with Homme on the sidewalk outside the courthouse, someone videotaped it. It was a scene. That source then provided the video to a well-known blogger and advocate who posted it as part of a longer piece criticizing these “reunification camps.”
In response, Homme hit the journalist with five subpoenas trying to force her to reveal her source for the video. And when the First Amendment Coalition tried to reason with Homme’s attorneys, informing them that both state and federal law protects journalists from discovery seeking to force them to reveal their sources, Homme’s attorneys told them to pound sand.
So my office moved to quash the subpoenas. We argued that California’s Reporter Shield Law provides an absolute privilege for journalists and publishers against being made to reveal their sources, and the First Amendment provides an additional qualified privilege that also protects them. And the California Court of Appeal has found those protections extend to nontraditional journalists and publishers like bloggers.
Today the Los Angeles Superior Court granted our motion and quashed Homme’s subpoenas “for all the reasons stated in the motion.”
It feels good to help independent journalists standing up to bullying by millionaire celebrities!