A federal judge on Tuesday granted the Associated Press’ request for an injunction blocking the White House’s ban on the outlet’s access to the Oval Office and East Room, adding that the Trump administration must “immediately rescind the denial of AP’s access.” The White House had previously banned the AP from the Oval Office for refusing to use the term “Gulf of America” instead of Gulf of Mexico.
“The Court simply holds that under the First Amendment, if the Government opens its doors to some journalists — be it to the Oval Office, the East Room or elsewhere — it cannot then shut those doors to other journalists because of their viewpoints,” Trump-appointed U.S. District Court Judge Trevor McFadden said in his ruling. “The Constitution requires no less.”
But the judge cautioned that the decision “does not limit the various permissible reasons the Government may have for excluding journalists from limited-access events. It does not mandate that all eligible journalists, or indeed any journalists at all, be given access to the President or nonpublic government spaces. It does not prohibit government officials from freely choosing which journalists to sit down with for interviews or which ones’ questions they answer. And it certainly does not prevent senior officials from publicly expressing their own views.”
Read the full decision here.
The Associated Press was banned from the White House on Feb. 11 in retaliation for the outlet’s refusal to call the Gulf of Mexico the “Gulf of America,” as mandated by President Trump. The outlet filed a lawsuit to restore access on Feb. 21.
That turned out to be the first of several direct attacks on media deemed unfriendly to Trump, culminating in the administration taking full control of the rotation of reporters granted access, effectively mooting the White House Correspondents’ Association.
In response, WHCA basically conceded defeat and told members, “Each of your organizations will have to decide whether or not you will take part in these new, government-appointed pools.”
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