Major news outlets banned by Trump will have their day in court

Three major news organizations — CNN, MS NOW (formerly MSNBC) and Politico — are suing President Trump after he blocked them from covering official White House events, arguing the move violates their First Amendment right to free speech and their Fifth Amendment right to due process. They want a federal court to restore their access. Trump said Friday he acted after what he called two years of unfair, negative coverage, telling reporters "there's something wrong with a country that can allow people to write purposefully negative things" and that he doesn't have to let them into "the people's house." The Justice Department plans to counter that the outlets have been "trafficking in verifiable falsehoods about national security and other issues, and publishing sensitive or classified information," according to a court filing submitted late Tuesday, according to NPR · BBC.

Theodore J. Boutrous of Gibson Dunn, the outlets' lead attorney, said Trump had openly used the ban to retaliate against unfavorable coverage and pressure journalists, and argued it deprives Americans of factual reporting on the presidency. Boutrous represented NPR and three Colorado stations when a court struck down a Trump order cutting public media's federal funding for similar reasons.

The ban created a scheduling problem too: CNN was set to serve as the network pooling video of Trump's official activities for other broadcasters, but none stepped in after CNN's exclusion, leaving Monday's White House helipad ribbon-cutting released without usable audio because helicopter noise drowned out his remarks.

Summarized by PolitiKool from NPR · BBC’s reporting. Read the full story at NPR · BBC →