Holmes’ lawyers want Jana Winter, who works at New York-based Fox News, brought to a Colorado courtroom to name two law officers who told her Holmes had mailed a notebook depicting violence to a psychiatrist. They argue the sources violated a gag order, may have later lied under oath about that and won’t be credible as trial witnesses.

Holmes’ attorneys argue that New York journalists, as a group, are not immune from being subpoenaed to testify in other states.

The Court of Appeals will hear arguments Tuesday. Its ruling is expected in December.

Holmes has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity. His murder trial is scheduled for February.

New York has a strong so-called “shield law” protecting professional journalists from having to disclose their confidential sources and preventing courts from finding them in contempt if they don’t disclose. Colorado has a similar law, but with an exception to subpoena information “directly relevant to a substantial issue” that cannot be obtained elsewhere.

Winter reported that the notebook, mailed to a University of Colorado psychiatrist before the mass shooting, had drawings of “gun-wielding stick figures blowing away other stick figures.” She cited two unnamed law-enforcement sources.