Aurora theater shooting suspect James Holmes is expected back in court Tuesday as attorneys discuss how long his mandatory mental-health evaluation should last.

Meanwhile, the debate over whether a Fox News reporter should have to reveal her sources for a story about Holmes’ notebook has also re-emerged in the case.

The mental-health evaluation had been scheduled to last until August, but, in a letter to Judge Carlos Samour last week, an official at the Colorado Mental Health Institute asked for an extension until Sept. 16. Samour scheduled Tuesday’s hearings for both sides to discuss the extension request, which could bump back key hearings dates and, ultimately, the trial currently set for February.

Samour ordered the evaluation after Holmes pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity to charges of murder and attempted murder stemming from the July 20 attack on the Century Aurora 16 movie theater that killed 12 people and wounded 58 others by gunfire.

In making that plea, Holmes waived portions of his doctor-patient privilege, which allowed prosecutors access to a notebook Holmes mailed to his psychiatrist just hours before the shootings. The notebook is at the center of the debate about the Fox News journalist, Jana Winter, who reported in July that it contains violent drawings and details of a murderous plot.

Holmes’ attorneys have sought to make Winter reveal her sources — saying those sources violated the case’s gag order. With the notebook now in evidence, Samour issued an order soliciting new arguments on the issue. Winter’s attorneys responded last week by asking to see the notebook.

“Winter’s counsel will be unfairly handicapped in their ability to brief the Court on the significance of its contents” without personally reading the notebook, Winter’s attorneys write in their motion.

Winter has also asked an appeals court in New York, where she is based, to quash her subpoena.

John Ingold: 303-954-1068, jingold@denverpost.com or twitter.com/john_ingold