Federal Judge Orders White House to Restore Press Access for CNN, MS NOW and Politico After Trump’s Ban

Update: On Sept. 24, a federal judge issued a 14-day temporary restraining order requiring the White House to restore access for CNN, MS NOW and Politico, after the outlets sued on Sept. 21. IF Daily’s earlier report on the ban and Saturday’s turn-aways is at https://ifdaily.net/stories/trump-bans-cnn-ms-now-politico-white-house-access-2026.

U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly ruled early Thursday that the White House must immediately restore the three outlets’ press credentials while he considers longer-term relief, according to CBS News and ABC7 New York. The order is temporary, not a final ruling on whether the ban is lawful, and the Justice Department is expected to appeal quickly, CBS News reported.

Kelly’s temporary restraining order lasts 14 days and is designed to "preserve the status quo pending a closer review of the case by the court," according to ABC7 New York. He issued it in an eight-page ruling on Thursday morning, a day after a hearing of roughly 45 minutes on Wednesday, Sept. 23, at which he did not rule from the bench, NBC News reported. ABC7 noted that Kelly was nominated to the bench by President Donald Trump in 2017 and that he ordered a CNN journalist’s White House access restored in a similar case in 2018.

Kelly found that the outlets are likely to succeed on their due process claims because the journalists received no prior notice of the bans and no opportunity to respond, according to CBS News. He also said he is skeptical of the administration’s claim that the bans were driven by national security concerns, writing that the record does not support it, and he noted that when Trump announced the ban he focused on the outlets’ alleged lack of truthfulness rather than on security, CBS reported.

At Wednesday’s hearing, Kelly questioned how the outlets could have followed standards that were communicated only after their passes were revoked. "I don’t know how a letter that they got after their pass was revoked could provide them with the kind of standards they would have to conform their conduct to," he said, according to NBC News.

Justice Department attorney Michael Velchik argued at the hearing that access to the White House is "a privilege — not a right," and that the three outlets had "failed to maintain basic minimum 'standards of professionalism'" by publishing sensitive information, NBC News reported. The administration pointed to White House letters alleging that the outlets were "trafficking in verifiable falsehoods about national security" and had disclosed classified material. CBS News reported that the Justice Department sent the outlets notification letters on Tuesday with a Friday deadline to respond. IF Daily has not independently verified those allegations, and the outlets’ own responses to them are not detailed in the coverage reviewed.

The outlets’ attorney, Ted Boutrous, argued that Trump’s own public statements undercut the national security rationale. "He is our lead witness here," Boutrous said, according to NBC News.

Trump announced on Sept. 18 that he was banning CNN, MS NOW and Politico from the White House, calling their coverage "fake news." Reporters from the three outlets were turned away and their credentials taken or disabled on Saturday, Sept. 19. The outlets sued on Monday, Sept. 21, arguing the ban violates the First Amendment and due process, and ABC7 reported they described it as viewpoint discrimination.

In the coverage IF Daily reviewed, no appeal had yet been filed, no next hearing date was reported, and there was no confirmation of when reporters would be back at the White House. A temporary restraining order is not a final decision. IF Daily will update this story as the case moves forward.