NEW YORK – A federal judge heard arguments Wednesday in a lawsuit challenging President Donald Trump’s decision to bar three news organizations from the White House grounds, but issued no immediate ruling.
The hearing was the latest turn in an extraordinary dispute between Trump and media outlets whose reporting he has criticized. Trump barred CNN, MS NOW and Politico beginning Friday, condemning their coverage as “fake news.” More recently, he has argued that negative reporting poses a danger to the country. The outlets say they were targeted because of their journalism, amounting to viewpoint discrimination and a “blatant violation” of the First Amendment.
U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly, whom Trump nominated in 2017 and who restored a CNN journalist’s access in a similar 2018 case, did not immediately decide whether to grant the outlets’ request for a restraining order. It was not clear when he would issue a ruling.
Kelly began the hearing by reminding both sides that he was required to follow existing legal precedent.
Rulings in two earlier cases involving press access, including one that reached the U.S. Supreme Court, established that journalists must be given an opportunity to be heard before their press credentials are revoked.
Justice Department attorney Michael Velchik has maintained that the earlier rulings were wrongly decided.
“Maybe they were, maybe they weren’t, but currently as a district judge I have to apply them,” Kelly said.
The outlets’ attorney, Theodore Boutrous Jr., opened arguments by describing the ban as an “unprecedented, unreasonable punishment” imposed with “not a semblance of due process.”
Velchik countered that “access to the White House is a privilege, not a right.”
“The president should be able to take immediate action to protect national security,” he added.
The Trump administration has continued to insist that it has authority to determine which journalists may enter the White House.
The Trump administration outlined ‘reporting incidents’ involving each news outlet
In a filing submitted late Tuesday, administration lawyers argued that the ban does not violate the First Amendment’s protection of a free press. They said the outlets had breached “standards of professionalism and decorum expected of those given access to the White House complex,” including by circulating “verifiable falsehoods about national security and other issues” and publishing sensitive or classified material.
The administration also described letters sent to each organization that listed “a non-exhaustive list of reporting incidents, including those that have threatened national security and spread falsehoods.”
Among the incidents cited in the filing were CNN’s reporting on “‘top-secret’ construction details related to the East Wing bunker”; MS NOW’s coverage of “an alleged leak investigation”; and Politico’s publication of “a document detailing funding for the White House ballroom containing intricate descriptions of how the Secret Service would invest in security improvements.”
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The administration’s individual letters provided additional examples. Politico’s letter identified six reporting incidents, including a June article that quoted a “senior administration official … granted anonymity” while predicting whether a preliminary agreement could bring an end to the conflict with Iran.
The article appeared to refer to a background briefing arranged by the White House, during which an official spoke to reporters anonymously under rules established by the administration. Several other news organizations also reported the official’s comments.
The news organizations contend that the ban is a blatant violation of the First Amendment.
Trump began placing greater emphasis on national security Tuesday, when he said unfavorable coverage was dangerous to the country.
“I think we have a right to clean out fake news,” he told reporters at the United Nations while defending the ban, which was announced abruptly Friday. The following day, journalists from all three outlets arrived at work and discovered that their entry badges had been deactivated.
The ban prompted other media outlets to take action in solidarity. The five-network U.S. network press pool — a rotating cast of news outlets that covers the president, and to which CNN belongs — decided to suspend coverage of Trump events until further notice. The Associated Press joined a group of organizations that refrained from publishing photos of the president Monday. On Wednesday, the network pool was again missing from a daily White House press schedule.
The ban and subsequent lawsuit are part of a long-running conflict between the president — especially in his second term — and media outlets he finds unfavorable. Trump has responded in the courtroom, or with regulatory action. He’s also lashed out at individual reporters in personal terms.
Other news outlets file a brief to the court in support of colleagues
An amicus brief was filed by other news groups Wednesday, urging the court to immediately restore the three outlets’ White House access.
The brief — filed by the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, the White House Correspondents’ Association and 49 media outlets and industry groups, including The Associated Press, The New York Times and Reuters — says “the targeted expulsion of news media from White House grounds injures the public interest” and that “unassailable First Amendment law makes any viewpoint-based decision to bar reporters from a nonpublic forum constitutionally repugnant.”
The proceedings are historic, said Katie Fallow, deputy litigation director at the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University.
“No president has taken this explicit of a step” to ban entire news outlets because he doesn’t like their reporting, she said. “There have been various presidents throughout history who have grumbled about the press or threatened to take more major steps, but really there was nothing at this level before Trump.”
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Noveck reported from New York. Associated Press journalist Laurie Kellman contributed from London.
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