New Act Grants DHS 180-Day Gag Orders on Subpoenas, Mandates Secret Court Review

The newly proposed Targeting Child Predators Act of 2025 is a major procedural shake-up for federal administrative subpoenas, specifically those used in certain sensitive investigations. The core of this bill is simple: it expands the government’s power to conduct investigations entirely in secret by imposing mandatory gag orders on anyone who receives one of these specific subpoenas. This isn't just a minor tweak to paperwork; it fundamentally changes who holds the cards when the government asks for your data.

The Shift to Homeland Security

First up, Section 2 moves the goalposts on who issues these subpoenas. Where the law previously mentioned the Secretary of the Treasury having authority over certain administrative subpoenas, that role is now transferred to the Secretary of Homeland Security (DHS). This is an important detail because it consolidates significant investigative authority under the security apparatus of the executive branch, moving it away from the Treasury Department's financial focus. For the average person, this means that the federal agency knocking on the door to demand information is now more likely to be DHS in these specific cases.

The Mandatory 180-Day Gag Order

The most significant change is the introduction of a mandatory, initial 180-day non-disclosure requirement—a gag order—attached to the subpoena. If a federal official certifies that disclosing the request would seriously jeopardize the investigation—say, by letting someone flee, destroying evidence, or endangering a life—the recipient cannot tell anyone that the government has asked for or received their information. This secrecy lasts six months (Section 2).

If you’re a small business owner who gets one of these subpoenas, you are now legally bound to silence for 180 days. You can only tell the people absolutely necessary to comply with the order, or your lawyer for legal advice. Crucially, anyone you tell—even your lawyer—is instantly bound by the exact same secrecy rules. If the official asks, you must identify everyone you shared the information with, effectively creating a chain of legally enforced silence that extends into the legal counsel process.

Challenging Secrecy in a Secret Court

The bill does create a new mechanism for due process, but it comes with strings attached. Section 3 adds a new rule (Section 3486A) that allows recipients to challenge the 180-day gag order in federal court. You can signal to the government that you want to challenge the order, or you can file a petition with the court. The catch? The gag order stays in place while the review is happening, and the government only needs to convince a judge that there’s reason to believe disclosure could cause the serious problems they initially certified.

Here’s where transparency takes a serious hit: the bill mandates that all hearings, filings, and court documents related to challenging the secrecy order must be closed to the public and kept under seal. This means that if the government imposes a gag order on a major company or a political organization, and that entity challenges the order, the entire legal battle takes place behind closed doors. The public will never know the government imposed the secrecy order, what the justification was, or how the court ruled on the matter, unless the case eventually becomes public through other means. This prioritizes administrative secrecy over public accountability, even within the judicial system meant to check executive power. Furthermore, the secrecy order can be extended for repeated 180-day periods if the government can keep convincing a judge that the danger still exists.