A federal judge will decide Wednesday whether CNN, Politico and MS NOW regain credentials, after the Justice Department told the court it will defend President Donald Trump’s decision to bar the three outlets from White House grounds. The DOJ asked a judge to reject the outlets’ request for a temporary restraining order, framing the matter as part of presidential authority over the White House complex.
In a 19-page filing led by Assistant Attorney General Brett Shumate, the department wrote, "The White House is the home and workplace for the Nation’s Commander-in-Chief." The filing says the President concluded the outlets failed to meet "basic minimum standards of professionalism and decorum expected of those given access to the White House Complex," and it cites instances of publishing what the document describes as sensitive or classified information about construction of the President’s ballroom.
The three organisations sued after the ban took effect on Friday, alleging violations of the First and Fifth Amendments. Their complaint said, "This ban could not be a more direct assault on the First Amendment nor a more blatant violation of our most fundamental constitutional principles." The networks’ legal team is led by Theodore Boutrous Jr.
The dispute has already changed White House coverage. The five-network television pool — CNN, NBC News, ABC News, CBS News and Fox News — suspended pool duties in solidarity, a move that left fewer official video feeds of the President at the White House and at other events. The New York Times also protested the restriction by withholding use of official White House images.
The DOJ asked the court to revisit D.C. Circuit precedent that treated some White House grounds as a nonpublic forum, arguing those prior rulings are incorrect and should be overruled. The networks pointed to a recent D.C. Circuit decision about access to the eastern steps of the Capitol, which described that area as a nonpublic forum requiring speech regulations to be viewpoint neutral.
U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly has scheduled the injunction hearing for Wednesday afternoon; Kelly ruled for then-CNN correspondent Jim Acosta in a 2018 dispute over a revoked credential. The outcome will determine whether the ban is paused while litigation proceeds and could establish how courts treat presidential control over press access to executive premises going forward.
