By Susan Heavey
WASHINGTON, Sept 24 (Reuters) – Politico, MS NOW and CNN reporters were barred from the White House on Thursday, just hours after a judge deemed President Donald Trump’s ban of the three news outlets likely unconstitutional and ordered their access immediately restored.
US District Judge Tim Kelly’s overnight ruling blocked the ban for 14 days in a major setback for Trump in one of his biggest battles with the media.
The Politico reporter’s credentials were also confiscated, Politico said, after Kelly temporarily blocked Trump’s ban. An MS NOW reporter said she also was blocked from the White House, while CNN said some of its staff members were denied entry onto the grounds.
MS NOW’s Laura Barrón-López, speaking on the network outside of the White House complex, said it was unclear if her blocked entry was a defiance of the court order or a problem with the White House entry system.
Representatives for the White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Kelly, in his order, said the White House’s revocation of the White House credentials of the journalists “likely violated their constitutional due process rights.” The judge also raised doubts about the US Department of Justice’s national security arguments for justifying the ban, noting that Trump himself had said the action was due to what the president alleged was false or negative coverage.
Theodore Boutrous, an attorney for the three outlets, praised the ruling in a statement, saying: “This is a strong ruling vindicating freedom of the press, due process and the rule of law. We greatly appreciate the court’s swift action.”
A coalition of press freedom groups and dozens of news organizations, including Reuters, filed a legal brief on Wednesday supporting the three news outlets.
Trump announced his ban in a social media post on September 18. The three outlets then sued Trump and other members of his administration on Monday, saying the ban violated the US Constitution’s First Amendment protections for free speech and a free press, as well as their due process rights.
(Reporting by Susan Heavey; additional reporting by Katharine Jackson and Gram Slattery; Editing by Doina Chiacu and Will Dunham)
Comments