A federal judge in the United States has blocked the media ban US President Donald Trump announced on September 18. In response to a lawsuit filed by CNN, MS Now and Politico, US District Judge Tim Kelly, a Donald Trump appointee, ordered the White House to restore access for the journalists of these three major US media outlets, slamming the POTUS’ decision as likely unconstitutional.
Trump has repeatedly hit out against the aforementioned trio of media houses. Issuing scathing messages against them in numerous social media rants, the Republican leader has often slammed their coverage as “fake news.” Even in his recent diatribe against them, he wrote online that the three outlets “shouldn’t be able to constantly write or report FICTION and LIES.”
US judge orders Trump White House to restore media access
“The record lacks factual support for defendants’ contention that the revocation of plaintiffs’ hard passes will in fact protect national security or that national security will be endangered if the court orders their passes reinstated while this litigation proceeds,” Judge Kelly said during the emergency hearing, adding that Trump himself had stated the ban was due to “alleged lack of truthfulness and negativity” of the outlets’ reporting.
As per US district judge’s decision, the Trump White House must immediately return the media organisations’ press passes. In his Wednesday ruling, alluded to previous cases indicating that “before a journalist’s White House hard pass was suspended or revoked… the journalist was entitled to pre-deprivation notice and an opportunity to be heard.”
Although a US Department of Justice (DOJ) lawyer contended that the current administration offered formal explanation for the press pass revocations in letters sent to the outlets on Tuesday, the judge remained skeptical of the claims. He pointed out that the letters were sent after the passes were revoked and the lawsuit was filed. The DOJ’s legal filing on Tuesday built the case around how access to the White House is a privilege, not a right, and that the POTUS has the authority to revoke access to it.
Meanwhile, CNN, MS Now and Politico had argued in their lawsuit that the media ban was in violation of the US Constitution’s First Amendment protections for free speech and a free press. Consequently, they had requested a temporary restraining order while the legal challenge moves forward. Judge Kelly has since issued the order, which will be in effect for 14 days.
Additionally, the Trump administration counter-response to the suit ultimately backfired as a coalition of press freedom groups and many news houses asserted in a legal brief that “stripping journalists and news outlets of their rights because of perceived editorial viewpoint violates decades of supreme court jurisprudence.”
Fox News, an organisation that Trump has long favoured and even featured interviews with multiple members of the Trump family, was among more than 50 organisations to sign the brief alongside the Reporters Committee For Freedom of the Press, Reuters, The Associated Press, The Washington Post, The New York Time and The Wall Street Journal.
The jointly signed brief, which is now a part of the federal lawsuit filed on Monday in the US District Court in Washington, condemned Trump’s move as “constitutionally repugnant.” Calling out how it would be detrimental to public interest, the brief added, “The administration’s reasons for doing so are transparently viewpoint discriminatory.”
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