A US Judge has ordered the White House to immediately restore press access for CNN, MS NOW and Politico after the three news organisations were barred from the building by President Donald Trump.
The District of Columbia court issued a temporary restraining order blocking the ban for 14 days, requiring the White House to reinstate the outlets’ access while the legal dispute continues.
The three organisations had challenged the administration’s decision in court after their reporters had their White House hard passes confiscated and were denied access to the building. They argued that the ban was unconstitutional and violated protections for the press.
The Trump administration defended the restrictions, accusing the outlets of publishing false information and posing a threat to national security.
Judge Timothy Kelly, however, found that the news organisations were “likely to succeed” in demonstrating that the White House had failed to provide “adequate due process” when implementing the ban.
The judge also questioned the administration’s national security justification for the restrictions, noting that Trump did not cite national security concerns when he initially announced the decision. “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,” the ruling stated.
The administration had cited several articles published by the three organisations as part of its defence of the restrictions. Some of the reports concerned construction activity at the White House, including work related to a new ballroom.
However, Judge Kelly found shortcomings in the administration’s argument that the journalists’ access had posed a security concern.
He said that, “in most cases,” the stories cited by the White House had been written by journalists who “did not even hold card passes.” In the remaining cases, he said that the administration had not demonstrated a reason to believe that the reporters’ possession of White House hard passes was integral to the stories in question.
The judge also examined declarations submitted by Defence Department officials in support of the administration’s position.
According to the ruling, those officials had “no direct knowledge of how reporters operate in the White House, or about any of the facts at issue here.”
The temporary order means CNN, MS NOW and Politico will regain access to the White House as their broader legal challenge proceeds. The administration could seek further legal action over the ruling.
49 Media Organisations Back Lawsuit Against White House
The dispute has drawn wider support from news organisations across the US, with 49 media organisations filing a legal brief in support of the lawsuit brought by CNN, MS NOW and Politico.
The organisations include CBS News, The New York Times and Fox News, reflecting opposition to the restrictions across outlets with different editorial positions.
The media industry’s response also extended to the White House press pool, an arrangement under which news organisations share reporting and other material from presidential events to reduce costs and logistical demands.
On Monday, major US television networks withdrew from White House pool duties in protest against the restrictions on the three organisations.
Rejecting the suggestion that his administration was attacking the free press and defending the decision to exclude CNN, MS NOW and Politico from the White House, Trump wrote on Truth Social on Monday, “The White House is not instituting an assault on the Free Press, something which I cherish.” Trump instead argued that his administration was targeting what he described as “FAKE NEWS.”
“It is instituting an assault on the FAKE NEWS, something that has grown like Cancer in our beloved United States of America. It is corrupt, purposeful, pervasive, fully coordinated, and totally out of control.”
Donald Trump
The legal challenge and the wider media response have placed renewed attention on the relationship between the Trump administration and the White House press corps.
Trump has frequently criticised news organisations, while his administration has pursued legal action against several media outlets, including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and the BBC.
Some of those cases have ended in multi-million-dollar settlements involving media organisations, while the administration’s lawsuit against the BBC remains ongoing.
The latest ruling does not resolve the underlying dispute over White House press access, but it requires the administration to restore the three organisations’ access while the litigation proceeds.
The White House is yet to comment on the ruling, and lawyers acting for the US President may choose to take further legal action.
