“Did Congressman Andy Harris violate student journalist Cat Murphy’s First Amendment rights by threatening her with prosecution for recording him at a public event in Cambridge, Maryland, despite the state’s two-party consent law generally applying to private conversations?”

On October 13, 2026, following a congressional debate in Cambridge, Maryland, Congressman Andy Harris engaged in a confrontation with Cat Murphy, a student journalist with the University of Maryland's Capital News Service. During a media scrum in a public hallway, Harris demanded that Murphy stop recording him, explicitly threatening to refer her to prosecutors and calling for an officer to intervene, citing Maryland's two-party consent law. Video evidence of the exchange confirms these statements. Maryland's wiretapping statute (Courts and Judicial Proceedings § 10-402) generally prohibits the interception of oral communications without the consent of all parties; however, courts have consistently interpreted this to apply to situations where there is a 'reasonable expectation of privacy.' Legal experts and the University of Maryland's journalism school have stated that this law does not apply to public press gaggles where multiple reporters are present and recording openly, as there is no reasonable expectation of privacy in such a setting. Harris has subsequently defended his actions, maintaining his interpretation of the law despite the public nature of the event.