NEW YORK — A federal judge ordered the Trump administration early Thursday to immediately reinstate access for three news networks that were barred from the White House by the president last week.The ruling hands CNN, MS NOW and Politico at least a temporary reprieve in what has been an extraordinary showdown between President Donald Trump and media outlets whose coverage he dislikes.The outlets filed a joint lawsuit saying the ban was a blatant violation of the First Amendment because it singled them out for the content of their coverage.US District Judge Timothy Kelly ordered the White House to “immediately return, reinstate, and restore” White House access to CNN, MS NOW and Politico, after ruling the ban “likely violated their constitutional due process rights”.He said they had met the legal thresholds to obtain a temporary restraining order, in effect for 14 days, and were likely to succeed in showing that their press passes were revoked without due process.The three outlets launched a legal challenge after their reporters had their passes for the White House confiscated and were denied access.The Trump administration defended the move in court, accusing the outlets of publishing false information and threatening national security, an argument the court rejected.The White House is yet to comment on the ruling, and lawyers acting for the president may take further legal action.Kelly also cast doubt on the Trump administration’s arguments that the bans were motivated by national security concerns, pointing out the president made no mention of that in his initial announcement.When Trump announced the ban on Friday, he accused the three news outlets of writing “fake news” and “fictions and lies” in their coverage of him and his team.In its defense of the ban in a court filing on Tuesday, the Trump administration cited a number of articles published by the outlets, some of them about construction at the White House, including work on a new ballroom.The judge said that “in most cases” the stories the White House took issue with were written by journalists who “did not even hold card passes”, and in the remaining cases, the Trump administration did not demonstrate “reason to believe that the reporter’s possession of the hard pass was integral to the stories identified”.In its original filing, the Trump administration cited declarations from Department of Defense officials supporting the ban, but the judge said they had “no direct knowledge of how reporters operate in the White House, or about any of the facts at issue here”.Ted Boutrous, the lawyer representing the news outlets, told CNN: “This is a strong ruling vindicating freedom of the press, due process and the rule of law.”On Monday, major US TV networks pulled out of White House pool duties in protest at the ban. The arrangement sees media organizations share material with each other to save on costs and space when broadcasting presidential events to the American public.Forty-nine media organisations, including CBS News, The New York Times and Fox News, also filed a legal brief in support of CNN, MS NOW and Politico’s lawsuit.Trump frequently criticises news organizations, and his administration has launched legal action against a series of outlets, including the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and the BBC.NEW YORK — A federal judge ordered the Trump administration early Thursday to immediately reinstate access for three news networks that were barred from the White House by the president last week.The ruling hands CNN, MS NOW and Politico at least a temporary reprieve in what has been an extraordinary showdown between President Donald Trump and media outlets whose coverage he dislikes.The outlets filed a joint lawsuit saying the ban was a blatant violation of the First Amendment because it singled them out for the content of their coverage.US District Judge Timothy Kelly ordered the White House to “immediately return, reinstate, and restore” White House access to CNN, MS NOW and Politico, after ruling the ban “likely violated their constitutional due process rights”.He said they had met the legal thresholds to obtain a temporary restraining order, in effect for 14 days, and were likely to succeed in showing that their press passes were revoked without due process.The three outlets launched a legal challenge after their reporters had their passes for the White House confiscated and were denied access.The Trump administration defended the move in court, accusing the outlets of publishing false information and threatening national security, an argument the court rejected.The White House is yet to comment on the ruling, and lawyers acting for the president may take further legal action.Kelly also cast doubt on the Trump administration’s arguments that the bans were motivated by national security concerns, pointing out the president made no mention of that in his initial announcement.When Trump announced the ban on Friday, he accused the three news outlets of writing “fake news” and “fictions and lies” in their coverage of him and his team.In its defense of the ban in a court filing on Tuesday, the Trump administration cited a number of articles published by the outlets, some of them about construction at the White House, including work on a new ballroom.The judge said that “in most cases” the stories the White House took issue with were written by journalists who “did not even hold card passes”, and in the remaining cases, the Trump administration did not demonstrate “reason to believe that the reporter’s possession of the hard pass was integral to the stories identified”.In its original filing, the Trump administration cited declarations from Department of Defense officials supporting the ban, but the judge said they had “no direct knowledge of how reporters operate in the White House, or about any of the facts at issue here”.Ted Boutrous, the lawyer representing the news outlets, told CNN: “This is a strong ruling vindicating freedom of the press, due process and the rule of law.”On Monday, major US TV networks pulled out of White House pool duties in protest at the ban. The arrangement sees media organizations share material with each other to save on costs and space when broadcasting presidential events to the American public.Forty-nine media organisations, including CBS News, The New York Times and Fox News, also filed a legal brief in support of CNN, MS NOW and Politico’s lawsuit.Trump frequently criticises news organizations, and his administration has launched legal action against a series of outlets, including the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and the BBC.
Federal court temporarily lifts Trump's White House media ban
