U.S. District Judge Timothy J. Kelly on Thursday ordered the White House to restore press credentials for CNN, MS NOW and POLITICO. The ruling came in a temporary restraining order that blocks enforcement of the administration’s ban on the three outlets.
Judge Kelly directed that group to hand back the hard passes that the three outlets staff lost around September 18. He set the order to last 14 days while the court moves quickly toward a hearing on the outlets’ request for a preliminary injunction. The case itself is not over.
The temporary restraining order applies to all of the defendants except President Trump. It covers their agents and representatives as well.
The fight started September 18. That day President Trump announced the three organizations could no longer enter the White House. He described their coverage as fake, negative and one-sided.
Hard passes for the outlets’ staff stopped working that weekend. When reporters showed up at the complex, officials took the physical cards and turned them away.
Three days later, on September 21, the outlets sued along with three of their reporters, naming President Trump and several administration officials. The complaint contends the ban violated the First and Fifth Amendments. Its core claim is retaliation for coverage..
Those outlets pushed that the Trump administration pulled their credentials with no warning and no chance to contest the decision. They are now asking the judge to declare the ban unconstitutional and put their access back in place while the lawsuit continues.
The Trump administration has since fought the emergency request. Contending that the cases giving White House hard-pass holders due process rights were wrongly decided, its lawyers pointed to letters dated September 22 as after-the-fact notice. Those letters invoked conduct rules for White House access.
“Your organization has exhibited behavior in violation of the standards of professionalism and decorum expected of those given access to the White House Complex,” The administration told the outlets.
In a separate filing, government lawyers maintained the removals were necessary to protect classified and sensitive national security information.
Judge Kelly concluded the plaintiffs are likely to win on due process because the government pulled the passes with no warning. The White House did not dispute that officials gave no notice beforehand.
That absence matters, Judge Kelly explained, because D.C. Circuit precedent treats a hard pass as a protected liberty interest that calls for notice and a hearing before revocation. The harm from losing that protection, he added, is irreparable, and the balance of equities and public interest favors restoring access now.
As evidence that no clear standard existed beforehand, he pointed to CNN reporter Betsy Klein — the White House had renewed her credential months after some of the reporting the administration later cited. For that reason he refused to put the order on hold.
On national security, the judge was not persuaded. He noted that officials offered little evidence linking the cited stories to any security threat. Some of the pieces were months or years old. On the record before him, he was skeptical that security concerns explained the revocations.
The current dispute is not the first revocation of White House access.
Last year a federal judge told the administration to let Associated Press journalists back into presidential events open to other credentialed reporters. That judge found the AP had been singled out for its viewpoint.
In another case In 2018, Judge Kelly heard a similar case. CNN sued after the White House revoked Jim Acosta’s credential.
Kelly granted a temporary restraining order on November 16 that year. The White House gave the pass back, and three days later CNN and Acosta voluntarily dismissed the case.
The Judge plans to set a fast schedule for the preliminary injunction request.
For now, under the temporary order, CNN, MS NOW and POLITICO have the White House access they had before September 18.
