Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump ordered his lawyers to threaten the New York Times with legal action after the Times published tax documents from 1995 that showed Trump lost $916 million that year entitling him to use the loss to avoid paying federal income tax for almost 20 years. The law firm told the Times that since Trump did not give permission, it was illegal to publish the tax records. (Above the Law, October 3, 2016, by Staci Zaretsky)
This was not the first time during the campaign Trump threatened the Times while generally treating the press with contempt. He has also threatened The Daily Beast, The Washington Post, and the Associated Press. (Columbia Journalism Review, October 3, 2016, by Trevor Timm)
Legal experts are largely in agreement that the First Amendment protects the Times in publishing the tax returns. Law professor Jan Bambauer cited a Supreme Court decision that held that publishing illegally obtained information was legal so long as it was of concern to the public. (Concurring Opinions, October 2, 2016, by Ronald K.L. Collins)
But California attorney Robert Barnes, Law Newz, October 2,2016, does not see it as a slam dunk for the Times: “New York Times Executive Editor Baquet’s public commentary (soliciting disclosure of Trump tax returns by acknowledging he would publish and “go to jail” for it) creates problems for The New York Times‘ First Amendment defense: the First Amendment is not a free pass to criminally invade the privacy of another by the promised act of publishing unlawfully obtained information, knowing it is a crime to do so.”