DOJ Says White House Access 'a Privilege' as CNN, Politico, MS NOW Sue

Justice Department lawyers told a federal judge Wednesday that President Donald Trump can keep CNN, Politico and MS NOW out of the White House because access is "a privilege, not a right," while 49 other news organizations, including Fox News, filed a brief backing the outlets' lawsuit, the BBC reported.

U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly heard the outlets' request for a temporary restraining order that would restore passes to 78 reporters. He did not rule, saying he would decide as soon as he could, according to the BBC.

Why it matters

The case tests whether a president can revoke credentials from entire newsrooms over their coverage, a step Katie Fallow of the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University said no president had taken before. The administration is also asking the court to throw out a 1977 precedent that has governed White House press access.

Key points

• Judge Timothy Kelly heard arguments Wednesday on restoring White House passes to 78 reporters from CNN, Politico and MS NOW but did not rule.
• A justice department lawyer argued the president can exclude anyone from parts of the White House, and Justice Department filings said the outlets' reporting raised national security concerns.
• Forty-nine news organizations, including Fox News, CBS News and The New York Times, filed a brief supporting the lawsuit.

Justice Department cites bunker and ballroom stories

A justice department lawyer told the court the president has the right to "exclude anyone he wants" from certain locations inside the White House and claimed the outlets had published information that could harm national security, the BBC reported. Court filings from the department listed a series of "reporting incidents," including stories about a security bunker and a new ballroom at the White House and a report on an internal leak investigation.

In letters sent Tuesday, the White House press office accused the three outlets of "trafficking in verifiable falsehoods about national security and other issues, and publishing sensitive or classified information," according to a report by Al Jazeera with the Associated Press and Reuters. The letters cited CNN's publication of "top-secret" details about a bunker beneath the East Wing, MS NOW's coverage of the Iran war's effect on U.S. munitions and a Politico story on ballroom funding that described Secret Service security improvements.

Boutrous calls ban 'viewpoint discrimination'

Theodore Boutrous, representing the outlets, argued the national security rationale was constructed after the fact to retaliate against critical coverage. He said Trump did not mention national security when he announced the ban in a Truth Social post last Friday, the BBC reported.

"The viewpoint discrimination is probably the clearest case in history. I mean, the president said, 'I don't like what you're publishing. I'm taking away your press pass based on that,'" Boutrous said.

Sherrill v. Knight and the Acosta precedent

The administration is asking the court to overturn Sherrill v. Knight, a 1977 appeals court ruling that White House press access cannot be denied arbitrarily or without compelling reasons, Al Jazeera reported.

Kelly, a Trump appointee, ordered CNN reporter Jim Acosta's credentials restored during Trump's first term. Fallow called the proceedings historic, saying "no president has taken this explicit of a step" to bar entire outlets over their reporting, according to Al Jazeera.

Major TV networks have withdrawn from the press pool in protest over the ban, and the White House has since launched its own streaming channel, Trump TV, the BBC reported.