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A federal judge ordered early Thursday that the White House immediately restore access for CNN, MS NOW and Politico, ruling that U.S. President Donald Trump's directive barring the three news outlets was likely unconstitutional.
U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly granted a 14-day temporary restraining order, telling the White House to "immediately return, reinstate, and restore" the outlets' press credentials while their legal challenge proceeds. Kelly found the outlets were likely to succeed in showing their credentials were revoked without due process.
"This is a high bar, but Plaintiffs have met it," he wrote.
Kelly wrote that nothing in the record supported the administration's claim that the ban was motivated by national security concerns.
"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 wrote, adding he was "skeptical ... that Defendants' interest in safeguarding national security is the actual motivation for, or is even advanced by, the revocation of Plaintiffs' hard passes."
Kelly also found that the specific stories cited by the White House as justification were "routine" and, in some cases, months or years old, and said the standard of objectionable reporting the administration outlined was "so vague it hardly does the trick."
Kelly, who was nominated by Trump during his first term, had ordered a CNN journalist's access restored in a similar case in 2018 involving reporter Jim Acosta.
Theodore Boutrous Jr., an attorney representing the outlets, called Thursday's decision "a strong ruling vindicating freedom of the press, due process, and the rule of law. We greatly appreciate the court's swift action."
Trump announced the ban Friday on Truth Social, saying it followed the outlets' "constant 'reporting' FAKE NEWS!" and that "Media Outlets shouldn't be able to constantly write or report FICTION and LIES."
On Saturday, Secret Service personnel turned away journalists from all three outlets attempting to enter the White House complex and confiscated their credentials.
Speaking to reporters afterward, Trump called the policy "the ban on the free press," saying, "I don't want them in my office. I don't want them here." He said it was not tied to a single report but to "cumulative stories over the last few years," arguing the outlets "purposely write negative news" to "diminish the Republicans."
CNN, MS NOW and Politico filed suit Monday, arguing the ban violated their First Amendment rights and their due process rights under the Fifth Amendment, since their journalists received no notice or opportunity to respond before losing access.
"The President's statements make clear he implemented the ban to coerce more favorable coverage of the administration from CNN, MS NOW, and POLITICO, and to deter other journalists and news organizations from reporting that the President might view as unfavorable," their lawyers wrote.
In a Tuesday filing, administration lawyers described the ban as preliminary, giving the outlets until Friday to formally challenge it, and outlined specific "reporting incidents" they said had "threatened national security and spread falsehoods."
These included CNN's reporting on "'top-secret' construction details related to the East Wing bunker," MS NOW's reporting on an alleged leak investigation, and Politico's publication of a document detailing security-related funding for the White House ballroom.
Politico's letter cited six separate incidents, including a June story quoting an anonymous senior official on the prospects of a preliminary deal with Iran, a background briefing that several other outlets had also reported on, according to court filings.
Justice Department attorney Michael Velchik argued during Wednesday's hearing that "access to the White House is a privilege, not a right," and that Trump could take "immediate action to protect national security."
He noted Trump had criticized other outlets, including calling ABC "the worst," without banning them, arguing this showed the policy was not viewpoint discrimination.
Boutrous countered that Trump had raised national security only after the lawsuit was filed: "Suddenly it's a national security case," he said, adding that the president "keeps proving our point" by tying the ban to negative coverage.
The ban prompted the five-network White House television pool, CNN, ABC, CBS, Fox News and NBC News, to suspend its rotating coverage of Trump events in solidarity, a suspension that continued even after Wednesday's hearing; journalists from Fox, CBS and NBC were present without cameras rolling when Trump welcomed Chinese President Xi Jinping at Joint Base Andrews.
In a joint statement, the pool networks said: "The public has a vital interest in receiving accurate, independent information about its government. No administration should restrict a news organization because it objects to its reporting."
The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, the White House Correspondents' Association, and roughly 49 other news organizations, including NBCUniversal and the Associated Press, filed a brief supporting the three outlets, arguing the ban's justification was "transparently viewpoint discriminatory" and inconsistent with First Amendment and Supreme Court precedent.
The Justice Department is expected to appeal the ruling; Trump had predicted before the hearing that the "totally disloyal" Kelly would rule against him and vowed to pursue an appeal.
Plaintiffs in the case include the three outlets and their White House reporters, CNN's Betsy Klein, MS NOW's Akayla Gardner and Politico's Cheyenne Haslett, while Trump, Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, communications director Steven Cheung and Secret Service Director Sean Curran are named as defendants in their official capacities.
The dispute follows a pattern from Trump's first term. The White House revoked CNN correspondent Jim Acosta's credentials, along with those of another reporter, before both later regained access through litigation.
The administration also excluded The Associated Press from the president's press pool at the start of Trump's second term. That case remains in litigation.
Separately, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has imposed access restrictions on reporters at the Pentagon, some of which The New York Times has successfully challenged in court.
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