News Outlets Seek Permanent Court Order
CNN, MS NOW, and Politico argue the White House is still blocking their access to the Oval Office and Air Force One.
By Christian Morales ·
Three major news organizations asked a federal court on Wednesday to make a recent ruling permanent. They want to stop the White House from excluding their reporters from covering President Donald Trump. The outlets claim the administration is defying existing court orders.
CNN, MS NOW, and Politico filed an amended complaint in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. They state that the White House continues to keep their journalists out of the rotating press pool. This pool covers the president in the Oval Office and on Air Force One. The outlets argue this exclusion violates their First Amendment right to free speech.
The legal team for the news groups is led by Theodore J. Boutrous Jr. He said the administration is blocking reporters in the very places where the president most often talks to the press. The filing asserts that the president is retaliating against these specific outlets because he dislikes their reporting.
U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly issued a ruling about two weeks ago. He found that the news organizations are likely to succeed in their lawsuit. He expanded a previous temporary order that said the administration violated the outlets' Fifth Amendment right to due process. On October 13, Kelly also ruled that the ban breached their First Amendment rights.
The president maintains that he does not have to allow news outlets with unfavorable coverage onto White House grounds. He also disputes the need to let them aboard Air Force One. The White House had not responded to the new lawsuit as of Thursday morning.
Kelly rejected the argument that the ban was driven by national security or policy goals. He determined that the ban resulted from Trump's belief that the reporting was inaccurate and biased. Kelly called this unlawful viewpoint discrimination.
The outlets wrote that every news organization now faces the risk of similar punishment. They stated that the public is deprived of current and complete information about its government. The court will now decide whether to make the access orders permanent.
Source: Orange County Register
