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  "published_at": "2026-11-12T01:20:41.221Z",
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    "headline": "Appeals court tells judge to narrow an order for journalists' LinkedIn records",
    "dek": "The Justice Department wanted 18 months of contact records in a leak probe. A unanimous Fourth Circuit panel called that substantially overbroad, but kept the order alive.",
    "prose": "The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that a judge must narrow an order requiring LinkedIn to disclose journalists' communications for a leak investigation.[^1] The three-judge panel found the Justice Department's request for records substantially overbroad.[^2] The opinion was unanimous.[^3] Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson wrote it.[^4]\n\n## What the government asked for\n\nThe Justice Department sought 18 months of metadata on the journalists' LinkedIn chat contacts.[^5] The original order covered 18 months of the targeted journalists' activity on the site.[^6] The case comes out of a national security leak investigation by the Trump administration.[^7]\n\nLinkedIn challenged the secrecy order attached to the request.[^8]\n\n## What the court did not do\n\nThe panel did not throw the order out. It rejected LinkedIn's request to cancel the district court's disclosure order in full.[^9]\n\nThat is the limit of the ruling. One report described it as barring the administration from the records.[^10] The court's instruction is narrower than that: the district court must cut down the set of records the department may have.[^11]\n\n## What comes next\n\nThe case goes back to Judge Elizabeth Hanes, who must narrow the order.[^12] How much of the 18 months survives is her decision.",
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