U.S. District Judge Timothy J. Kelly ordered a temporary reinstatement of CNN, MS NOW and Politico’s press access to the White House following the Trump administration’s recent ban on media outlets that did not align with the president’s politics.
The overruled ban coincided with U.S. President Donald Trump’s statement on Truth Social detailing his disdain for the media outlets and their alleged illegitimacy: “Media Outlets shouldn’t be able to constantly write or report FICTION and LIES when they’re covering the President of the United States, the Trump Administration, or the United States of America. Other Fake News Media Outlets to follow.”
Trump’s decision to restrict the media outlets is not the first time his administration has faced criticism for limiting the press. At the start of his second term, the White House imposed similar restrictions on journalists from The Associated Press following news that the outlet would not adopt his executive order renaming the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America.
The AP challenged these restrictions in a federal suit, stating, “The Constitution does not allow the government to control speech. Allowing such government control and retaliation to stand is a threat to every American’s freedom.”
The lawsuit called into question the amount of control a presidential administration should have over which journalists can access and report from the White House.
The decision to reinstate CNN, MS NOW and Politico’s press access came to a head following the three organizations’ challenge to the White House restrictions in federal court. The outlets collectively argued that their removal was a “blatant violation” of their First Amendment rights and unjustly restricted their ability to report on the president and his administration.
The outlets released a joint statement in the Politico Press expressing their contempt for the situation.
“Without notice or process, the White House revoked our journalists’ credentials because it objected to our reporting. Left unchallenged, this threatens press freedom and the public’s right to independent journalism free from government interference,” they said.
Kelly ultimately ruled in favor of the temporary restoration of the outlet’s hard pass badges on Sept. 24, allowing their journalists to regain access to the White House for 14 days while the legal deliberation on the legitimacy of the ban persists.
Kelly’s order focused in part on the Trump administration’s reasoning for removing the journalists. The administration argued the removal was due to national security concerns.
“Nothing in the record that predates this suit suggests that the revocation of Plaintiffs’ hard passes was motivated by national security concerns. Certainly, that is not what President Trump said when he announced that he was ‘banning’ Plaintiffs from the White House — instead, he focused on the alleged lack of truthfulness and negativity of Plaintiffs’ reporting,” Kelly said.
Kelly questioned the validity behind the methods used to remove the journalists’ press credentials, pointing to the 1977 Sherrill v. Knight case which established that journalists cannot have their White House press passes removed without proper procedures, including having advance notice, an opportunity to respond and an explanation from the White House on the decision.
“Plaintiffs have shown a likelihood of success, at least on their Fifth Amendment procedural due process claim,” Kelly wrote.
Despite Kelly’s order, the reinstatement of press access did not eliminate all restrictions that were placed on the three outlets. CNN and MS NOW journalists were denied access to cover the arrival of Chinese President Xi Jinping to the White House for a state dinner. CNN was also excluded from the White House’s television pool coverage altogether.
The restrictions on CNN’s access to the White House television pool also prompted responses from other major news outlets. NBC, CBS and Fox News were among the other outlets present at the event; however, these outlets did not shoot video for the television pool to stand in solidarity with CNN.
