WASHINGTON — A federal judge on Tuesday ordered the White House to keep letting journalists from three national news outlets into the complex while their lawsuit over a September press ban moves forward.
U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly issued a preliminary injunction replacing a temporary restraining order that was set to expire Tuesday. The order bars officials except the president from enforcing the Sept. 18 decision that revoked hard-pass credentials for employees of those outlets, including MS NOW.
President Donald Trump announced the ban on social media, saying the outlets were cut off for what he called constant fake-news reporting. Reporters with hard passes were denied entry the next day. The outlets sued on Sept. 21, arguing the move violated due process and First Amendment protections.
In the ruling, Kelly found that the plaintiffs are likely to succeed on their due process claim and on two First Amendment claims. He said Trump comments suggest the hard-pass revocations were meant to alter their reporting and that the president likely banned the outlets because he believes their reporting is inaccurate and biased against him.
The judge rejected Justice Department arguments that national security partly drove the ban, finding little evidence Trump cited that reason from the start. Kelly, appointed to the bench by Trump in his first term, also said post-ban White House letters did not fix the notice problem because access had already been cut.
The injunction preserves complex access for the lawsuit duration but does not force the administration to restore pool duty on Air Force One or the Oval Office. The three outlets said the ban affected 78 journalists who held hard passes.
