A federal judge ruled late Tuesday that President Trump cannot ban news organizations from covering him at the White House because he does not like the nature of their coverage - at least, not until the matter goes to a formal trial.U.S.District Court Judge Timothy J.
Kelly found that Trump's decision to bar more than 70 journalists from CNN, MS NOW and Politico violated their fundamental free speech in two separate ways as well as their due process rights.Both rights are enshrined in the Bill of Rights to the U.S.
Constitution.The news organizations sued last month after the Trump administration denied them access.The judge granted a temporary restraining order to CNN, MS NOW and Politico on Sept.
24.Kelly pointed repeatedly to Trump's own public statements and social media posts to construct his conclusion that Trump was not responding to national security concerns.Instead, he wrote, Trump sought to pressure news outlets to cover him more favorably by stripping them of press credentials to gain access to the White House."President Trump's own comments suggest that he intended the revocation of Plaintiffs' hard passes to alter their reporting on him, bolstering the case that his action here is sufficient to deter a reporter of ordinary firmness from reporting in the same way she had before," Kelly wrote in the opinion.He later continued, "[T]he ban threatens to cut off all Plaintiffs' access to the White House press area -- a space open to many of their competitors -- thereby restricting their ability to observe happenings there firsthand, immediately report on those activities, and try to engage with government officials."Theodore J.
Boutrous, the noted First Amendment attorney representing the three U.S.news outlets, had argued in court last week that Trump was the best witness his clients could offer for their case - because the president was so blatant about not liking the tenor of their coverage.
Late Tuesday, after the release of Kelly's ruling, he haile...