Judge Temporarily Restores White House Passes for CNN, MS NOW, and Politico

U.S. District Judge Timothy J. Kelly ordered the White House early Thursday to immediately return press credentials to CNN, MS NOW, and Politico. The 14-day temporary restraining order covers hard passes held by about 78 journalists from the three outlets. Kelly, a Trump nominee from 2017, issued the eight-page ruling shortly before 1 a.m. after a Wednesday hearing. He said the outlets were likely to succeed, at least on due-process grounds, and denied a Justice Department request to delay the order two days. Temporary restraining orders are generally not immediately appealable. He set expedited briefing on a longer preliminary injunction.

President Trump announced the ban on Truth Social on Sept. 18, saying the outlets “shouldn’t be able to constantly write or report FICTION and LIES” and calling their work “FAKE NEWS.” He said other outlets “to follow.” Reporters were turned away and had passes confiscated on Saturday. The three organizations filed a joint suit arguing viewpoint discrimination and a First Amendment violation. The Justice Department said White House access is a privilege, not a right, and that the president may suspend it. Department lawyers also cited national security. Before the hearing Trump posted that he expected the “totally disloyal” Kelly to rule against him and that “as usual, we’ll go for appeal.” Kelly is the same judge who ordered CNN correspondent Jim Acosta’s pass restored in 2018.

Kelly granted the restraining order on Fifth Amendment due process. He wrote that the government did not dispute the outlets “did not receive notice and an opportunity to be heard before their hard passes were revoked.” D.C. Circuit precedent, he said at the hearing, requires notice and a chance to contest before credentials are pulled. Letters the White House later sent listing objectionable stories were “so vague it hardly does the trick,” he wrote. He did not resolve the First Amendment claim in this order.

On national security, Kelly said the pre-lawsuit record did not support that motive. “Certainly, that is not what President Trump said when he announced that he was ‘banning’ Plaintiffs from the White House — instead, he focused on the alleged lack of truthfulness and negativity of Plaintiffs’ reporting.” He called the cited articles “routine,” noted that many were written by reporters who did not hold hard passes, and said the government offered no declarations showing how the named stories damaged national security. “Plaintiffs — and the public — have an abiding interest in maintaining the status quo ante given the importance of the free press.”

Theodore Boutrous Jr., counsel for the outlets, called it “a strong ruling vindicating freedom of the press, due process and the rule of law.” The White House did not immediately comment overnight. After CNN was pulled from a United Nations pool assignment earlier in the week, ABC, CBS, NBC, and Fox had suspended White House television pool coverage. The order landed as Trump prepared to host Chinese President Xi Jinping at the White House. The ban remains in litigation. After the two-week restraining order, Kelly will decide whether to extend the block.