CNN, MS NOW and Politico allowed back in White House after judge orders end to ban - USA Today

WASHINGTON – All three media outlets that President Donald Trump banned from the White House were allowed back in Sept. 24 after a judge ruled that the revocation of their credentials probably violated the Constitution.

U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly, a Trump appointee, had ordered the administration to respond by 12:30 p.m. ET. CNN, MS NOW and Politico announced that their reporters were let back in just after noon, though many of them were initially denied access in the morning.

Micah Stopperich, director of White House press operations, submitted a statement to the court that the press credentials were restored Thursday morning and available for retrieval before 10 a.m.

But the legal fight over the media ban isn't over. Judge Kelly ordered the White House to reinstate the credentials for just 14 days while the news outlets sued over the revocation. Trump had already said he expected Kelly to rule against him – and that his administration would appeal.

Trump initially announced Sept. 18 he was revoking credentials for the outlets, accusing their reporters of publishing inaccurate stories and threatening national security. But Kelly found no evidence from before the revocation that the ban stemmed from national security concerns.

Even though CNN, MS NOW and Politico have returned to the White House, the legal battle is far from resolved.

Judge Kelly ordered the administration to restore journalists' badges for only two weeks after Trump banned the organizations. Kelly could extend his order so the reporters can continue at the White House while the case is litigated.

But Trump previously said he expected Kelly to rule against him and would appeal to a higher court. The dispute could eventually reach the Supreme Court.

Trump accuses the news outlets of threatening national security with poor reporting. But the outlets argue they have a First Amendment right to access if other organizations are granted credentials.

Judge Kelly set deadlines for the three news outlets and the Trump administration to file written arguments in the dispute over White House credentials.

Kelly told CNN, MS NOW and Politico they must file their request by Sept. 28 for a longer restoration of their credentials than the 14 days he ordered. The Trump administration would have to reply by Oct. 2, and the news outlets could reply by Oct. 5.

Kelly said he would set a date for a hearing on any longer-term order later.

Reporters from Politico and CNN returned to their workspaces inside the media area of the West Wing shortly after their access was restored.

A Politico reporter was back at the publication’s desk, and several journalists for CNN returned to a small office where the network operates its White House coverage. 

Even though Trump’s media ban is no longer being enforced, the White House television pool has not returned to covering the president.

As a result, the five major television networks have not aired video footage from Trump’s meeting with President Xi Jinping Thursday at the White House. Xi is on a multi-day state visit this week in America.

CNN reported the five major networks that make up the pool – CNN, Fox News, ABC, CBS and NBC – are still waiting for confirmation from the White House that CNN will be let back into the pool. Although reporters from CNN, MS NOW and Politico were allowed back in the White House earlier in the day, the pool operates separately.  

This pool is composed of a small group of reporters from television, print and radio outlets given close face-to-face access to the president during events. The pool includes one network camera crew, which broadcasts a television feed that is shared with other networks.

Critics of the Trump ban called it unconstitutional and said obeying the judge’s order wasn’t optional.

Conor Fitzpatrick, chief supervising attorney for the free-speech advocacy group Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, said the administration doesn’t have the option of ignoring the judge’s order.

“Court orders are not optional,” he said. “Refusal to abide by a court ruling has a name: contempt. And contempt has clear consequences.”

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-New York, said Trump’s “desperate, repressive media ban is flagrantly unconstitutional.”

“No president should be able to use censorship to escape accountability,” Schumer said on the Senate floor. “Is Trump so fragile, so thin-skinned, so desperate that he can’t handle reporting that reflects the truth that he doesn’t want to hear?”

Judge Kelly said in his order he was restoring the credentials for 14 days because they had been revoked without “constitutionally adequate due process.”

"For one thing, nothing in the record that predates this suit suggests that the revocation of Plaintiffs’ hard passes was motivated by national security concerns," wrote Kelly, who ruled in 2018 against Trump suspending another CNN reporter’s credentials.

Kelly also said he is bound by a 1977 precedent, when a federal appeals court ruled that the White House cannot arbitrarily deny press passes to reporters based on the content of their coverage if the White House has voluntarily opened its doors to media and established facilities for the press.