Federal Judge: TWH Press Ban Ruled Unconstitutional

A federal judge has ordered U.S. President Donald Trump to restore White House access to journalists from CNN, MS Now and Politico, saying the ban was likely unconstitutional.

A federal judge on Thursday ordered President Donald Trump to restore White House access for journalists from CNN, MS NOW and Politico, ruling that his ban on the three outlets was likely unconstitutional.

U.S. District Judge Tim Kelly issued the order in a lawsuit the news organizations filed after Trump announced the ban on September 18. The decision marked a significant setback for the president in one of his sharpest confrontations with the press.

Kelly directed the administration to immediately restore the outlets’ press passes and barred officials from enforcing the ban for 14 days. 

He rejected the government’s claim that the move was driven by national security concerns.“The record lacks factual support for defendants’ contention that the revocation of plaintiffs’ hard passes will in fact protect national security or that national security will be endangered if the court orders their passes reinstated while this litigation proceeds,” Kelly wrote. He noted that Trump himself had said the ban stemmed from the outlets’ “alleged lack of truthfulness and negativity.”

On Wednesday,  The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, the White House Correspondents’ Association and 49 news organizations filed a friend-of-the-court brief Wednesday urging a federal judge to restore White House access for CNN, Politico and MS NOW. 

The brief supports the three outlets’ motion for a temporary restraining order that would immediately return their hard-pass credentials and bar the administration from enforcing President Trump’s ban while the lawsuit proceeds. 

U.S. District Judge Timothy J. Kelly, a Trump appointee, held an emergency hearing on that motion Wednesday afternoon in Washington.  Kelly focused Wednesday on due process in the fight over President Trump’s White House ban of CNN, Politico and MS NOW, saying the process required by earlier court rulings “wasn’t played out here.” He did not issue a ruling from the bench.

Signers to the friends-of-the-court brief include The Associated Press, Reuters, The New York Times, The Washington Post, USA TODAY, Axios, and Dow Jones, publisher of The Wall Street Journal. They are not parties to the case. 

They told the court they have a direct interest in the outcome because a ban based on coverage could be used against any outlet next. “Stripping journalists and news outlets of their rights because of perceived editorial viewpoint violates decades of Supreme Court jurisprudence and is impermissible in any type of forum, including the White House,” the brief says. The groups argue the lockout is meant to create a “chilling effect,” discouraging other newsrooms from publishing stories they fear could trigger the same sanction. They also write that they “know firsthand the importance of physical access by the press to government places and personnel.” 

Gardner, Klein, Haslett

Trump announced the ban Friday on Truth Social, calling the three outlets “fake news.” On Saturday, reporters including CNN’s Betsy Klein, MS NOW’s Akayla Gardner and Politico’s Cheyenne Haslett were turned away and had their passes confiscated. The outlets sued Monday, arguing the ban is viewpoint discrimination and retaliation without due process. The Justice Department, in a Tuesday filing, called White House access “a privilege — not a right” and said the outlets threatened national security by publishing sensitive information. 

The administration offered the organizations until Friday to contest those findings in writing and asked Kelly to deny the restraining order. The press groups’ brief answers that argument directly: once the White House opens facilities to some journalists, it cannot eject others because the president dislikes their reporting. That, they say, is the First Amendment question now before the court.