Why was the Privacy Protection Act of 1980 drafted?

The Privacy Protection Act of 1980 (PPA) is a federal law that protects journalists and newsrooms from search and seizure by government officials in connection with criminal investigations or prosecutions. The PPA prohibits the government from searching for or seizing any work product materials or documentary materials possessed by a person who intends to disseminate them to the public through a newspaper, book, broadcast, or other similar form of public communication, unless certain exceptions apply. The PPA was drafted in response to the Supreme Court’s decision in Zurcher v. Stanford Daily, which upheld the constitutionality of a police search of a student newspaper’s office without a subpoena, based on probable cause that the newspaper had evidence of a crime. The PPA was intended to protect the First Amendment rights of the press and the privacy interests of journalists and their sources from unreasonable government intrusion123. References:

1: IAPP, Privacy Protection Act of 1980, https://epic.org/the-privacy-protection-act-of-1980/

2: DOJ, Privacy Protection Act of 1980, https://www.justice.gov/archives/jm/criminal-resource-manual-661-privacy-protection-act-1980

3: Wikipedia, Privacy Protection Act of 1980, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Privacy_Protection_Act_of_1980