Two California papers successfully challenge subpoenas for unpublished material

Two student newspapers this month successfully fought off subpoenas seeking unpublished materials as evidence in unrelated criminal cases.\n \nThe Orange County District Attorney’s office on May 12 withdrew a subpoena it issued earlier in the month to the Lariat, the student paper at Saddleback College, seeking all notes, unedited video and other documents relating to an April 9 assault on a campus security officer, the paper reported. It was the second subpoena seeking the paper’s unpublished materials about the assault; a previous subpoena was dropped because the subpoenaed Lariat staffer did not have access to the requested video, the paper said.\n \nIn a separate case, the Santa Barbara County Public Defender Office on May 14 dropped a subpoena seeking unpublished pictures taken by photographers for the Daily Nexus, the student paper at the University of California at Santa Barbara, after the editor agreed to provide a