Trump Must Reinstate CNN, MS NOW, Politico White House Press Access

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Posted in: streaming, TV, YouTube | Tagged: cnn, MS NOW, Politico, trump

Trump Must Reinstate CNN, MS NOW & Politico's White House Press Access

Trump-appointed U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly ruled that the White House must reinstate CNN, MS NOW, and Politico's press access.

Published Wed, 14 Oct 2026 08:37:10 -0500
by Ray Flook
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Article Summary

  • Trump-appointed Judge Timothy Kelly ordered the White House to restore CNN, MS NOW, and Politico press access.
  • Kelly said CNN and the other outlets are likely to win on due process and First Amendment claims.
  • The ruling says Trump likely targeted CNN, MS NOW, and Politico over coverage he viewed as biased.
  • Judge Kelly rejected the White House national security defense, finding no record evidence behind the ban.

Ruling that the news outlets "are likely to succeed not only on their due process claim, but also on their two First Amendment claims," Donald Trump-appointed U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly ruled that the White House is prohibited from banning CNN, MS NOW, and Politico, granting a preliminary injunction that reinstates access moving forward. Judge Kelly added that it was "likely that "Plaintiffs were selected by President Trump for revocation of their access to the White House press area because he believes their coverage of him and his administration is generally inaccurate and biased—in other words, it was 'an effort to suppress the speaker's activity due to disagreement with the speaker's view.'" Along with noting that the D.C. Circuit had previously ruled that the White House press area was a "non public forum" that the government couldn't ban access to based on unfavorable reporting, Judge Kelly addressed each of the Trump Administration's arguments in his 26-page opinion. Here are some of the highlights…

Image: PBS Hour Screencap; CNN; MS NOW; Politico
  • Judge Kelly on News Orgs Not Getting Due Notice/Process: "To put it mildly, [the news outlets] likely did not receive notice either of the conduct that would subject them to revocation of their hard passes, or of the magnitude of the revocation sanction itself." In addition, Judge Kelly noted that a number of the news reports red-flagged by the White House in its court filing went live earlier this year, and were conducted by CNN, MS NOW, and Politico reporters who would have their press passes renewed – prior to Trump attempting to put his ban in place.
  • Judge Kelly on Trump Engaging in First Amendment-Threatening Retaliation: "President Trump's own comments suggest that he intended the revocation of Plaintiffs' hard passes to alter their reporting on him, bolstering the case that his action here is sufficient to deter a reporter of ordinary firmness from reporting in the same way she had before. After explaining that he excluded Plaintiffs from the White House because they 'purposely write negative news . . . to try and diminish the Republicans and a Republican administration,' President Trump remarked that he is prepared to take 'the ban . . . as far as you can,' but that he would 'love it' if they 'could straighten themselves out,'" Judge Kelly wrote. "The record is clear that President Trump made the decision at issue. And his announcement of the ban and later remarks explaining the reason for it make this a straightforward conclusion: President Trump likely banned Plaintiffs from the White House because he believes that their reporting is generally inaccurate and biased against him."
  • Judge Kelly on Trump's National Security Claim: Judge Kelly set aside the Trump Administration's national security argument, writing that there was "no evidence in the record" that the decision to revoke the passes was made for those reasons "from the get go, nor at any time has he directly stated that national security was the reason for his decision."
  • Judge Kelly on POTUS Concerns Over Fair Reporting, National Security: Judge Kelly did note that "no one should interpret the court's decision to suggest that President Trump's concerns about accuracy and fairness in the media's reporting are unfounded, or that the government is powerless when its true aim is to protect national security when classified information is unlawfully disclosed."

Theodore Boutrous Jr., the lead attorney representing CNN, MS NOW, and Politico, said in a statement, "When the president issued his 'ban on the free press,' he blatantly and explicitly violated due process and the First Amendment. 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 and to try to force journalists to cover him in ways he prefers," shared Theodore Boutrous Jr., the lead attorney representing the news outlets, in a statement. "The harm this ban did to our clients, the First Amendment, and the public as a whole is profound. The court was right to enjoin the White House from enforcing this 'unconstitutional ban on the free press' for the foreseeable future."

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