A federal judge appointed by Trump has blocked his White House ban on CNN, MS NOW and Politico, ordering the administration to immediately let the outlets’ reporters back in.
U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly issued the ruling early Thursday, finding that the White House took the reporters’ press badges without “constitutionally adequate due process.” Due process is the constitutional guarantee that the government must give people fair notice and a chance to respond before taking away something they have a right to. Kelly wrote that the general rule is notice and an opportunity to be heard first. The reporters got neither. The administration did not tell them they could appeal until Wednesday, days after their passes had already been confiscated.
Trump announced the ban last Friday in a social media post, saying he was kicking the outlets out over their “FAKE NEWS” and warning that other outlets would follow. By Saturday, reporters from all three newsrooms found that their hard passes, the permanent credentials that let White House reporters come and go from the grounds, no longer worked. MS NOW White House reporter Akayla Gardner ended up reporting from outside the complex after being turned away.
The outlets sued Monday, arguing the ban violated their First Amendment right to a free press and their Fifth Amendment right to due process. They asked Kelly for a temporary restraining order, which is an emergency order that freezes a government action while the lawsuit plays out.
The administration’s defense leaned on national security. In a Tuesday filing, the Justice Department claimed the outlets failed to meet standards of professionalism and decorum, including by publishing sensitive or classified information, and argued that access to the White House is a privilege, not a right. The administration also claimed the ban was not payback for critical coverage. Ted Boutrous, the attorney for the three outlets, told the court the first mention of national security came days after the ban was announced and only after the lawsuit was filed, arguing the justification was tacked on after the fact. Kelly also noted that the letters spelling out conduct standards arrived after the reporters had already lost access, questioning how a letter sent after the punishment could give anyone rules to follow.
Kelly was nominated by Trump in 2017, and this is not the first time he has ruled against a Trump press ban. In 2018, he ordered the White House to restore then CNN correspondent Jim Acosta’s press pass on the same due process grounds. Trump saw this coming. After the case was assigned Monday, he posted on Truth Social that the outlets had drawn a great judge for them, “a man who ruled in favor of Jim Acosta,” and pointed out that Kelly was his own appointee. In the same post, he said the administration would appeal any loss.
At Wednesday’s hearing, Kelly said he was bound by two earlier appeals court decisions, from 1977 and 2022, that require due process before the White House can pull a journalist’s access. The government argued those cases were wrongly decided. Kelly said that may or may not be true, but as a district judge he has to follow them.
The White House ban also froze television coverage of the president’s events. CNN had been scheduled to serve in the TV press pool, the small rotating group that shoots video and shares it with every other network. When CNN was blocked, NBC, ABC, CBS and Fox all refused to take its place, and pool video coverage was suspended.
It was not immediately clear when the reporters’ credentials would be reactivated or whether the administration has filed an appeal.
