Judge blocks Trump's White House ban on CNN, MS NOW and Politico while case proceeds
A Trump-appointed federal judge found that revoking the reporters' hard passes likely violated the Constitution. Journalists from the three outlets keep their access for now.
Symbolic image · Photo: CabbageFuel / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped and resized)
A federal judge on Tuesday night blocked the White House from barring reporters from CNN, MS NOW and Politico, granting a preliminary injunction that keeps their hard passes in place while the lawsuit proceeds. U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly, a Trump appointee, found the outlets were likely to succeed on their First Amendment and due process claims.
Trump announced the ban in September, citing the outlets' "constant 'reporting' FAKE NEWS." Government lawyers later argued the reporters had breached professionalism standards and published stories that raised national security concerns. Kelly said that rationale came after the fact and called the cited reporting "commonplace, for better or worse," adding that Trump's own remarks suggested he intended to alter the outlets' coverage of him.
Kelly wrote that his decision should not be read as suggesting Trump's concerns about media accuracy and fairness are baseless. Before the ruling, Trump said the Justice Department would appeal if he lost. Theodore Boutrous, a lawyer for the outlets, said the president had "blatantly and explicitly violated due process and the First Amendment."