Respect for the Press

Subpoenaing the press will not be haphazard at the SEC. The Wall Street Journal reports here that Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Christopher Cox  will require commissioner notification prior to subpoenaing documents from journalists.  This policy comes in the aftermath of a subpoena that had been issued to two Dow Jones & Co. journalists.

Internal agency policy on issues of this magnitude is important to protect against individual decision-makers, who may have enormous discretion, acting in variance with others with the same discretionary power. Approval not only will provide oversight to these policy decisions, but also allow the agency to operate with some uniformity in making such decisions.

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