New bill aims to protect journalists' materials from unwarranted searches

A new bill introduced by Sen. Ron Wyden and Rep. Becca Balint could help end a troubling pattern of law enforcement officers getting permission from judges to search and seize a journalist’s materials without telling courts about a federal law designed to prevent exactly that.The Privacy Protection Updates Act would provide some much-needed teeth to the Privacy Protection Act of 1980, a federal law that forbids the government from using search warrants in most cases to raid newsrooms or journalists’ homes, or seize their equipment. Freedom of the Press Foundation (FPF) strongly endorses the bill.Just a few months ago, the government raided Washington Post reporter Hannah Natanson’s home based on a search warrant that failed to mention the Privacy Protection Act. Although a judge later rebuked assistant U.S. attorney Gordon Kromberg for that omission, prosecutors and the government have faced few real consequences so far.Natanson’s case is at least the sixth in recent years where author