The ruling came in response to a lawsuit filed by the news organizations contesting the ban, issued on September 18. In his order, District Judge Tim Kelly said the ban was likely unconstitutional. Kelly said the order must remain in place for 14 days.
Kelly rejected the government's claim that the ban had been prompted by national security concerns. "The record lacks factual support for defendants’ contention that the revocation of plaintiffs’ hard passes will in fact protect national security or that national security will be endangered if the court orders their passes reinstated while this litigation proceeds," he said. He pointed out that Trump himself had initially cited only an "alleged lack of truthfulness and negativity" in reporting by the outlets as the reason for the ban.
At a Wednesday hearing, Kelly said two previous rulings from the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit had established the White House press passes can be revoked only after due process. made clear that journalists are entitled to due process. He said that the banned news outlets did not appear to have been given a proper chance to contest the ban. Kelly, who was nominated by Trump in 2017, ordered a CNN journalist’s access restored in a similar case in 2018.
On Tuesday, the Justice Department had argued in a filing that access to the White House was a privilege, not an entitlement, and that the president had the authority to deny access news organizations. The outlets, in their turn, argued they were singled out because of the content of their coverage and called the ban a "blatant violation" of the First Amendment, which guarantees free speech to US citizens. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video
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