Incident Details
- Date of Incident
- May 14, 2020
- Legal Orders
-
-
subpoena
for
communications or work product
- May 14, 2020: Pending
- Dec. 10, 2020: Dropped
- May 1, 2023: Pending
- Feb. 28, 2024: Quashed
-
subpoena
for
communications or work product
- Legal Order Target
- Institution
- Legal Order Venue
- Federal
Subpoena/Legal Order
Subpoena of investigative nonprofit revived, then quashed
A subpoena of investigative outlet Reveal was revived on May 1, 2023, after an appeals court reversed a lower-court ruling dismissing an underlying lawsuit. The defendant in that case had demanded documents and unpublished information from Reveal. The revived subpoena was subsequently quashed on Feb. 28, 2024.
Reveal, run by California nonprofit The Center for Investigative Reporting, published an article and podcast episode in 2017 about the exploitative practices of some court-mandated drug rehabilitation programs. The report highlighted Oklahoma residential recovery program CAAIR, which provided workers to Arkansas chicken processing company Simmons Foods, Inc.
Former residents of CAAIR then sued both CAAIR and Simmons in federal court, alleging that their labor practices violated the Constitution and Oklahoma state law.
In May 2020, Simmons subpoenaed Reveal for any documents containing statements by current or former CAAIR participants relating to the program, Simmons, or their experiences of sobriety or addiction.
After Reveal refused, citing the First Amendment and both California and Oklahoma reporters’ privilege laws, Simmons filed a motion to compel the outlet to comply. In December, the U.S. District Court dismissed the suit, rendering the subpoena moot.
But in May 2023, an appeals court reversed the dismissal, reviving Simmons’ motion to compel and sending the case back to the district court. The district court ultimately denied Simmons’ motion, ruling on Feb. 28, 2024, that Simmons could seek CAAIR participants’ opinions of the program elsewhere.
Reveal was “an innocent third party that possesses relevant information and asserts privilege solely for the purpose of protecting society’s interests in the newsgathering process,” Magistrate Judge Jodi Jayne wrote in the district court ruling. “The First Amendment considerations prevail over the need for disclosure.”
The Center for Investigative Reporting, a California-based nonprofit that publishes investigative reporting on the revealnews.org site, was subpoenaed on May 14, 2020, for documents and unpublished information relating to its 2017 article, All Work. No Pay.
The article, a version of which also appeared on the Reveal podcast, noted that courts nationwide increasingly are sending non-violent offenders into drug rehabilitation programs as an alternative to serving time in prison. According to the investigation, some rehab programs essentially serve as work camps for for-profit companies.
Reveal’s investigation focused on one program that it said fit that profile: Christian Alcoholics & Addicts in Recovery, or CAAIR, a long-term residential drug and alcohol recovery program in Oklahoma that provided workers for Simmons Foods Inc., a for-profit chicken processing company in Oklahoma. Residents of CAAIR worked for Simmons Foods in conditions that amounted to indentured servitude, Reveal alleged in its report.
After the Reveal report was published, former residents of CAAIR, who had entered the program through Oklahoma's drug courts, sued CAAIR and Simmons Foods. The lawsuit, filed by the former residents in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Oklahoma in October 2017, alleged that they were provided no rehabilitative treatment at CAAIR but were required to work in excess of 40 hours a week for Simmons. The lawsuit charged that they worked in unpaid, dangerous conditions, under the constant threat of being sent to prison if their work was deemed unsatisfactory.
In May 2020, lawyers for Simmons moved to subpoena The Center for Investigative Reporting, to gain access to documents and unpublished material that were part of the Reveal report. Lawyers for the outlet objected, arguing that the requested materials were privileged information under California and Oklahoma journalist shield laws.
On Oct. 2, 2020, lawyers for Simmons moved to compel compliance with the subpoena. The Center for Investigative Reporting subsequently made a motion to quash the subpoena.The court never ruled on the motion to quash the subpoena because on Dec. 10 it dismissed the workers’ lawsuit against Simmons and CAAIR.
The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker catalogues press freedom violations in the United States. Email tips to [email protected].