(Headline USA) CNN, MS NOW and Politico on Monday sued President Donald Trump’s administration days after they were barred from covering the White House, calling the selective ban an illegal action and “a blatant violation” of the First Amendment, despite the possession of press credentials not being a First Amendment-protected right.
The Constitution, the banned news outlets said in their lawsuit, “does not allow a president or any other government official to deprive the press of their First Amendment rights and liberty and property interests with no notice or process based solely on his dislike of the content of their reporting.”
The three outlets filed the joint lawsuit two days after their reporters were blocked from the White House. The reporters’ entry badges were disabled on Saturday, a day after Trump had suddenly announced he was barring the outlets because of reporting he found to be “fake news.”
On Monday morning, the banned TV networks were reporting from an intersection just outside the White House complex. CNN, meanwhile, was removed from its pool duties, which are shared by the five major networks. It had been scheduled to cover the president’s trip to New York for the U.N. General Assembly. In an email to members, the TV pool wrote there would be no replacement coverage following the White House actions.
“Effective today, the TV pool will not be covering events designated as pool coverage of the President,” said the email, seen by The Associated Press. “This follows the White House’s position preventing CNN from fulfilling its assigned pool duties. There will be no replacement pool put in place.”
CNN’s chief White House correspondent, Kaitlan Collins, explained on air that this meant: “When the president does anything today, there will be no TV camera with the president that is broadcasting and sharing this footage” to the viewing public.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the lawsuit. But on his Truth Social platform, Trump wrote Monday morning that he “cherished” what he called a free press.
“The White House is not instituting an assault on the Free Press, something which I cherish,” the president said in his post. “It is instituting an assault on the FAKE NEWS, something that has grown like Cancer in our beloved United States of America. It is corrupt, purposeful, pervasive, fully coordinated, and totally out of control. It is a threat to our National Security, and must be stopped, NOW!”
“This morning, we notified the government that we are filing a lawsuit today to protect our First Amendment rights and defend the principle that the government does not decide what the press reports or publishes,” the outlets said in a joint statement posted early Monday on X.
“Without notice or process, the White House revoked our journalists’ credentials because it objected to our reporting,” they said. “Left unchallenged, this threatens press freedom and the public’s right to independent journalism free from government interference.”
In the joint complaint, the outlets said: “This ban could not be a more direct assault on the First Amendment nor a more blatant violation of our most fundamental constitutional principles.”
They say they’re being banned from doing their jobs at the White House “for one simple reason: (Trump) dislikes the content of the coverage of him and his administration.”
“President Trump has said in no uncertain terms that he would prefer only to be covered by news organizations and reporters who praise his administration,” says the complaint, filed in the name of the three outlets and three correspondents who were denied access Saturday.
It went on: “But the Constitution does not allow a president or any other government official to deprive the press of their First Amendment rights and liberty and property interests with no notice or process based solely on his dislike of the content of their reporting.”
On Saturday, White House reporters from the two cable networks — Betsy Klein of CNN and Akayla Gardner of MS NOW — went live to report they’d been turned away, their press badges deactivated, when arriving for their jobs at the White House. Soon after,
Politico said its White House reporter Cheyenne Haslett was also denied entry and had her badge confiscated.
All three organizations that were banned covered the White House’s actions extensively during the weekend.
Over the weekend, the AP expressed solidarity with the banned news outlets.
“No news organization — or person — should be retaliated against by the government over the words they use,” said a statement from the news cooperative.
Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press.
