U.S. News & World Report LP, renowned for its annual ‘Best Hospitals’ list, confronted San Francisco’s city attorney in a California federal court on Tuesday. The media company filed a lawsuit, alleging that the city attorney’s office has exercised flatly unconstitutional and overly invasive subpoenas aimed at investigating the publisher’s ranking system. These allegations suggest that the issuance of subpoenas may stem from a dispute over the attorney’s office’s perspective on U.S. News & World Report’s editorial values.
In the filed complaint, U.S News & World Report LP considers the subpoenas excessively burdensome and an overstepping of jurisdiction. Such use of legal power, according to the media publisher, targets its principle of editorial independence and violates the First Amendment rights.
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