WASHINGTON — A federal judge on Tuesday ordered the Trump administration to continue allowing reporters from CNN, MS Now and Politico onto the White House complex, indefinitely barring the government from revoking their credentials while a legal challenge proceeds.
U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly issued a preliminary injunction that extends an earlier emergency order restoring access for the three news outlets. In a 26-page ruling, Kelly determined that the ban enacted by President Donald Trump likely infringed upon the journalists’ First Amendment and Fifth Amendment rights.
Ruling on Constitutional Grounds
The White House initially announced the ban on Sept. 18, accusing the three outlets of reporting “FAKE NEWS” and spreading falsehoods about the administration. The following day, U.S. Secret Service officers seized the permanent credentials, known as hard passes, of 78 affected journalists. The media coalition filed a civil rights lawsuit on Sept. 21, prompting Kelly to enter an initial temporary restraining order on Sept. 24 to reinstate their building access.
Government attorneys argued that the White House holds broad authority to control entry to its grounds and asserted that the restrictions were instituted partly due to national security and professionalism concerns. Kelly rejected that rationale, finding little evidence that security risks motivated the decision before the credentials were taken away.
“President Trump likely banned Plaintiffs from the White House because he believes that their reporting is generally inaccurate and biased against him,” Kelly wrote in the decision, concluding that the retaliatory action would deter a reasonable reporter from publishing stories critical of the administration.
Kelly also highlighted due process violations, noting that the administration failed to provide the news organizations with prior notice or an opportunity to respond before cutting off their access. While the White House later dispatched letters citing flagged stories that allegedly threatened security, court records showed many were written by reporters without White House credentials, and one cited a White House background briefing.
Scope of the Injunction
The preliminary injunction mandates that the federal government maintain the status quo and refrain from enforcing the credential revocations throughout the duration of the litigation, which could last several months. The court directed the plaintiffs to post a one-dollar bond.
The injunction guarantees entry to the broader White House campus, but it does not mandate access to smaller, restricted spaces. In recent weeks, the administration prevented journalists from CNN and Politico from participating in pooled coverage inside the Oval Office or aboard Air Force One.
“When the President issued his ‘ban on the free press,’ he blatantly and explicitly violated due process and the First Amendment,” Theodore J. Boutrous Jr., an attorney representing the media organizations, said in a statement. “Since then, the President has repeatedly, candidly, and consistently admitted in public that he banned our clients from the White House to punish reporting he doesn’t like.”
What Comes Next
Trump signaled on Truth Social before the formal opinion was released that the Justice Department intended to appeal any decision that blocked his administration’s media restrictions.
Meanwhile, the Justice Department disclosed last week that it launched an antitrust investigation into five major television networks, including CNN and NBC, after the broadcasters briefly paused pool coverage of presidential activities to protest the administration’s treatment of the three barred outlets. The underlying First Amendment lawsuit over the White House press credentials remains pending before Kelly.
