Federal Judge Trevor McFadden, Trump’s 2017 appointee, ruled Tuesday that the White House must allow the Associated Press to take part in the press pool assigned to cover news about the president, restoring access for the agency’s reporters to Air Force One and other exclusive areas.
At the same time, the magistrate suspended his own order for five days, giving the administration until Sunday to appeal to a higher court before the ruling takes effect. White House staff had effectively denied access to AP reporters after they refused to refer to the Gulf of Mexico as “Gulf of America,” as dictated by one of the executive orders signed by Trump shortly after he took office.
White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt had argued that being able to follow the president is a “privilege” and that the press office had the right to disallow media access that did not respect the government’s new designation of the Gulf.
However, on Tuesday, Justice McFadden said: ““The Court simply holds that under the First Amendment, if the Government opens its doors to some journalists—be it to the Oval Office, the East Room, or elsewhere—it cannot then shut those doors to other journalists because of their viewpoints. The Constitution requires no less.”
Last month, the Associated Press sued three senior White House officials over the ban after its reporters were banned from the Oval Office and Air Force One. The AP and press freedom groups claim the Trump administration is seeking to suppress media coverage it does not deem sufficiently favorable, while warning other news outlets about the “risks” they could face.
As a result of the diatribe with the agency, the White House has decided to take direct control of the press pool attached to the president, a job usually handled by the White House Correspondents’ Association.
“The Court does not order the Government to grant the AP permanent access to the Oval Office, the East Room, or any other media event”, McFadden finally concluded, “It does not bestow special treatment upon the AP. Indeed, the AP is not necessarily entitled to the ‘first in line every time’ permanent press pool access it enjoyed under the WHCA. But it cannot be treated worse than its peer wire services either.”
