Judge Declines To Order White House To Immediately Restore AP’s Access To Events After Trump’s “Gulf Of America” Ban
A federal judge declined to order the White House to immediately restore the Associated Press’ access to the Oval Office and various White House events, after Donald Trump restricted the news organization as punishment for failing to change references of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America.
U.S. District Court Judge Trevor McFadden ruled that the AP had not met the threshold for a temporary restraining order, but he did set the case on an expedited schedule, vowing that he would keep an “open mind” about the issues at hand.
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“As things stand now, I don’t think a [temporary restraining order] is appropriate,” he said.
But McFadden, a Trump appointee in his first term, also warned White House officials that case law over press access does not weigh in their favor — “uniformly unhelpful to the White House” — while suggesting that the administration may want to consider changes to its position against the news outlet. During 90 minutes of oral argument, McFadden said at one point that he found the White House rationale for excluding the AP as “problematic” as it was based on the news service’s content.
The White House reacted to the judge’s ruling, saying, “We stand by our decision to hold the Fake News accountable for their lies, and President Trump will continue to grant an unprecedented level of access to the press.”
Lauren Easton, spokesperson for the AP, said, “We look forward to our next hearing on March 20 where we will continue to stand for the right of the press and the public to speak freely without government retaliation. This is a fundamental American freedom.”
The AP sued Trump administration officials Friday, more than a week after the White House first started cutting off access to the wire service from pool duty of Trump’s comments in the Oval Office, as well as other events and travel on Air Force One.
On his first day in office, Trump issued an executive order renaming the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America. In its style guidance, the AP said it would retain the name Gulf of Mexico, noting it was an international body of water and that other countries had not yet recognized the name change.
In its brief filed today, the White House’s legal team said it was up to the president who decided who got “special access” to such events, just as it would be Trump’s prerogative who to grant an interview to one outlet over another. The government’s attorney, Brian Hudak, said that the AP had no special right to be invited in to the Oval Office, which has limited space, nor does it have the right to be a member of the 13-person press pool that typically gets access to the space, where reporters witness the president and often pose questions to him.
At the hearing though, Charles Tobin, attorney for the AP, said that by inviting reporters to cover the Oval Office as part of a pool, or to larger events in the East Room, it triggered a “liberty interest” on the part of the media organization. Such an interest prohibits arbitrary exclusion of an outlet based on their content. He also argued that the White House failed to give its reporters due process, as it informed them of the punishment after the decision was made. The nature of the ban also changed, as it first applied to just AP reporters, but was later widened to include photographers.
Tobin said that the issue was not whether the president had to give all outlets “special access,” but that “All access to the White House is special,” Tobin said. “Once you let people in, it becomes a different analysis.”
He also noted that the AP had been shut out of events in the East Room and off the grounds of the White House, such as the National Building Museum, that can accommodate many more journalists. The East Room events, for instance, are typically open to all White House hard pass holders or the press at large, with the press office taking RSVPs for attendance.
In declining to issue a temporary restraining order, the judge said that the AP had failed to show that it was suffering irreparable harm, noting that the wire service has continued to cover events by relying on the pool reports distributed to other outlets.
But in questioning Hudak, McFadden suggested that the case was “more nuanced” than the AP wanting to retain special access privileges. He said that it brought up questions of whether they could be prohibited on a discriminatory basis. White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles made clear in an email to the AP that the ban was because of the continued Gulf of Mexico reference, but also to other AP Stylebook terms that displeased the Trump White House.
The White House Correspondents’ Association, a private group, has long determined who would serve in the press pool, the smaller team of reporters who cover the president in the Oval Office and other areas where space is limited.
The judge noted that the “White House has accepted the WHCA’s ability to be the referee here,” adding that by singling out the AP over the Gulf of Mexico reference, “That seems to be problematic.”
Hudak, though, said that the president has the right to make access decisions, even ones based on an outlet’s reporting, not just in selecting who to grant one-on-one interviews but slightly larger events. As an example, he said that it would be within Trump’s right to decide that only reporters who specialize in the economy should get access to an Oval Office event on tariffs.
“There is no First Amendment right to newsgathering,” Hudak said. “There is a First Amendment right to publication.”
The judge gave the AP until March 3 to file a briefing, and March 11 for the White House to respond. The AP’s reply is due on March 17, and the next hearing is scheduled for March 20.
The AP’s executive editor, Julie Pace, was present for the hearing, as was its chief White House correspondent, Zeke Miller, and the president of the WHCA, Eugene Daniels. Sitting with the government lawyers was the deputy chief of staff, Taylor Budowich, who is one of the named defendants in the lawsuit, and Ed Martin, who is interim U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia.
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