In a significant setback for the Trump administration, a federal judge has ordered the immediate restoration of White House press credentials for CNN, MS NOW, and Politico. U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly issued a temporary restraining order blocking the ban, demanding that White House officials “immediately return, reinstate, and restore” the hard-pass press credentials for the three outlets for a period of 14 days. The judge found that the outlets had demonstrated a strong likelihood of success in their claim that their access was revoked without constitutionally adequate due process, stating, “This is a high bar, but Plaintiffs have met it.” Furthermore, Judge Kelly rejected the administration’s national security justification for the ban, noting that the “record lacks factual support” for the assertion that revoking the passes protected national security or that their reinstatement would endanger it. President Trump had announced the ban the previous week, accusing the outlets of reporting “FICTION and LIES,” leading to reporters from these organizations being denied entry to the White House and their credentials deactivated or confiscated. The outlets and three individual reporters had sued, arguing that the revocation violated their First Amendment free speech rights and Fifth Amendment due process rights. The Justice Department had argued that press access is a privilege, not a right, and defended the president’s authority to grant or deny it. This ruling comes as other White House television pool members, including FOX News Media, ABC News, CBS News, and NBC News, had announced they would suspend their pooled coverage of the president following the ban.
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