Judge Holds Off on Immediate Ruling on White Houses Media Ban

A federal judge on Wednesday declined to issue an immediate ruling on the White House’s ban against CNN, MS NOW and Politico after hearing arguments from the two sides in the case, leaving the ban in place for the time being.The judge, Timothy J.Kelly of U.S.

District Court in Washington, appeared skeptical of the legality of the ban during the hearing.But he pulled up short of immediately reversing the ban, as the media outlets had asked.

He instead said he would rule “as soon as possible.”The ban dates to last Friday, when Mr.Trump declared in a Truth Social post that he would bar CNN, Politico and MS NOW from the White House because of their reporting.

On Saturday, journalists for each outlet were denied access to White House grounds, and by Monday, the outlets had sued the administration, arguing the ban was a violation of their First Amendment rights.Other media companies pulled back from their routine coverage of presidential events as a show of support for the banned outlets.The television pool — five networks that share the responsibility of providing and distributing television coverage of the president — suspended that coverage starting Monday.

The New York Times and The Washington Post also said they would limit publication of photos taken from the president’s events as part of a broader effort among journalists to boycott in support of the barred journalists.NPR stopped using audio from White House events, according to an internal memo viewed by The Times.A lawyer for the media outlets, Theodore J.

Boutrous, told the judge in Wednesday’s hearing that Mr.Trump’s repeated statements that he had imposed the ban because he took exception to journalism from certain media organizations made him “our lead witness.” Mr.

Boutrous said such a rationale infringes on the outlets’ constitutional rights.“He keeps proving our point,” Mr.

Boutrous said.Mr.Boutrous also responded to the White House’s argument, in court filings, that th...