New York v. The Journal News [1]

On April 14, 2008, the Rockland County District Attorney's Office issued a grand jury subpoena to The Journal News [2], a daily newspaper distributed in New York and Southern Connecticut that operates LoHud.com [3], a website providing an online version of the newspaper as well as community forums that post reader comments regarding news, opinion, and subjects of public interest. The subpoena requested that The Journal News provide subscriber information for a user who had posted to one of LoHud's forums using a pseudonymous screen name. To maintain grand jury secrecy, the court documents did not reveal the screen name or the reason that the information was sought.

The Journal News moved to quash the subpoena before a Rockland County court. Relying on Dendrite v. Doe [4], 775 A.2d 756 (N.J. Super. Ct. App. Div. 2001), the newspaper argued that the court should require the District Attorney to make a heightened showing of need and demonstrate an evidentiary basis for requesting the information in order to overcome First Amendment protection for anonymous speech. The court denied the motion to quash, ruling that it could could dispose of the case without adopting the Dendrite standard because the District Attorney had made a heightened showing of need through in camera [5] testimony. 

The court directed The Journal News to comply with the subpoena by May 28, 2008.