On Friday, a three-judge panel of the federal appeals court in the District of Columbia reinstated, in a 2-1 vote, parts of President Donald Trump’s ban on the Associated Press, whose reporters had been barred from several key areas where presidential press events are usually held, including the Oval Office, Air Force One and the Mar-A-Lago residence.
The ruling represents a setback for the agency, which has been eager to restore its reporters’ access to the White House press pool.
Justices Neomi Rao and Gregory Katsas, both Trump appointees, largely granted the government’s request to overturn an April ruling by a district judge that had blocked the administration’s ban. The AP filed suit after Trump banned the news organization for refusing to refer to the Gulf of Mexico as the “Gulf of America.”
In a 27-page opinion, Rao wrote that “these restricted presidential spaces are not First Amendment fora opened for private speech and discussion. The White House therefore retains discretion to determine, including on the basis of viewpoint, which journalists will be admitted.”
The April injunction by U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden, “undermines the president’s independence and control over his private work spaces,” Rao added instead. Judge Cornelia Pillard, an Obama appointee, also spoke on the case, expressing her disagreement with last week’s ruling. “Looking further ahead, if any merits panel were to accept those theories, the result would be a Press Pool — and perhaps an entire press corps — limited during Republican administrations to the likes of Fox News and limited to outlets such as MSNBC when a Democrat is elected,” she stated.
The Trump administration, for its part, has argued that Air Force One, the Oval Office and other White House spaces are assimilated to personal and private spaces, whose public access may be restricted.
Friday’s ruling also took into account the fact that after Judge McFadden’s order, AP reporters were sometimes readmitted to the press pool. Reporters have also continued to attend formal sessions held in the James S. Brady press room, where dozens of news outlets of all kinds regularly have their assigned seats.
