Federal Judge To TWH: Give It Back!

A federal judge on Friday granted CNN’s request for a court order that would temporarily reinstate network correspondent Jim Acosta’s White House press pass, which had been suspended indefinitely in the wake of a fiery exchange between the reporter and President Donald Trump a week earlier.

The ruling from Judge Timothy Kelly, who was appointed by Trump, was a first victory for CNN in the ongoing case, according to CNBC.

CNN’s lawsuit, announced Tuesday, argues that Acosta’s constitutional rights had been violated by Trump and five other members of his administration, as well as by the U.S. Secret Service. The other defendants include chief of staff John Kelly, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, deputy chief of staff Bill Shine and Secret Service Director Randolph Alles.

Jim Acosta

The legal challenge came in response to the Trump administration’s decision last week to yank Acosta’s “hard pass,” which gave him access to the White House grounds, after Acosta clashed with the president at a news conference earlier that day. The suit underscored Trump’s increasingly hostile relationship with many mainstream media outlets, which he regularly decries as “fake news” and “the enemy of the people.”

CNN argued that the White House infringed on Acosta’s free press and due process rights under the First and Fifth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution. The network was asking for an order that would temporarily reverse the White House’s suspension of Acosta’s hard pass, until a final decision on the lawsuit was reached. CNN also wants “a declaration that the revocation of Acosta’s press credentials was unconstitutional.”

Justice Department lawyers replied in a court filing that suspending the pass was “lawful” and that the White House held “broad discretion to regulate” journalists’ access to the grounds.

Acosta has often used stark language to challenge the White House on its policies. At the most recent White House press briefing on Oct. 29, Acosta grilled Sanders on Trump’s use of the phrase “enemy of the people” to describe the media.

Trump has specifically targeted both CNN and Acosta for their coverage of him and his presidency. In January 2017, then-president elect Trump tore into Acosta at a news conference, saying “your organization is terrible” and “you are fake news.”

The rift between Acosta and the White House widened substantially at a Nov. 7 news conference the day after the midterm elections, where Trump claimed victory even after Democrats regained majority control of the House.