Executive Director Anthony Romero said the legal exception applies only when there is a continued threat to public safety and is "not an open-ended exception" to the Miranda rule, which guarantees the right to remain silent and the right to an attorney.

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"That is highly unusual for a judge to intervene so hastily and make the decision not based on the facts of the interviews and the public safety exception, but what they perceived was happening based on what they saw on television, " he said.

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The public safety exception does not set a hard time when questioning must stop and the suspect must be taken into court, but it's generally understood to be about 48 hours.

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The government has invoked the public safety exception, a designation that allows investigators to question the teen without reading him his Miranda rights and without a lawyer present, another Justice Department official, also speaking on condition of anonymity, told CNN.

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