Judge Declines to Immediately Block White House Ban of 3 News Outlets

A federal judge on Sept. 23 declined to block President Donald Trump’s White House ban of three outlets for now, as he weighs arguments from news outlets and the government.

U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly, who is based in Washington, said during a remote hearing that he was not immediately imposing a temporary restraining order that would have enabled CNN, MS NOW, and Politico to access the White House.

“I’ll consider what you told me today and try to get you an answer as soon as I can,” Kelly said at the conclusion of the hearing.

The ban on CNN, MS NOW, and Politico was announced by Trump on Sept. 18 and began being enforced the following day.

The White House sent letters to the outlets dated Sept. 22 that said the organizations had violated “the standards of professionalism and decorum expected of those given access to the White House Complex, including by trafficking in verifiable falsehoods about national security and other issues, and publishing sensitive or classified information.”

That included CNN reporting “top-secret” details related to the construction of a new White House bunker and Politico reporting that officials were considering lifting sanctions on Russia, even though the Trump administration has actually intensified sanctions on Russia, according to the letters.

A lawyer for the outlets told Kelly during the hearing that the White House can only in emergency situations revoke press passes without notice.

He pointed to previous rulings, including a 2019 decision in favor of reporter Brian Karem that ordered the government to restore Karem’s White House press pass because it did not provide notice to Karem prior to the revocation.

Kelly also in 2018 said the White House appeared to violate the constitutional right to due process of Jim Acosta, a CNN reporter, by revoking his pass to the White House without giving him notice, an opportunity to rebut the government’s reasons for the revocation, and a written decision.

Seventy-eight reporters across CNN, MS NOW, and Politico have been banned indefinitely “without any notice, without any standards being articulated,” the lawyer for the outlets said.

Kelly said during Wednesday’s hearing, “I think it is far to say that the processes … that the court laid out in those two cases … wasn’t followed here.”

A government lawyer told the judge that the White House has given the outlets due process because it laid out a process for plaintiffs to contest the bans. “The president should be able to take immediate action to protect national security,” the lawyer said.

“I don’t know how a letter that they got after their pass got revoked could provide them with the kind of standard that they would have to conform their conduct to,” Kelly responded.

In a filing prior to the hearing, lawyers for the outlets said that the White House ban also ran afoul of the First Amendment because Trump has made clear the ban stemmed from their viewpoint.

Government lawyers had said in a brief to Kelly that the ban did not infringe on First Amendment rights and that the basis was the outlets disclosed secret information, imperiling national security.

“Access to the White House is a privilege, not a right,” they said, pointing to previous rulings, including a 1965 Supreme Court decision.

Trump previously banned The Associated Press from the White House and some other spaces. A federal appeals court cleared the ban from the Oval Office and certain other areas, but said the reporters must be allowed access to the East Room in the White House.

“At the very least, the Government may control reporters’ access to restricted presidential areas, such as the Oval Office, even for viewpoint-discriminatory reasons,” the government lawyers said in a brief to Kelly. They said that the part of the decision relating to the East Room should be overruled.