Update September 24, 2026, 4:15pm ET: This article was updated with the judge’s ruling ; Originally published September 22, 2026 at 10:24am
CNN, MS NOW, and Politico took President Trump to court over his decision to ban their journalists from the White House.
As reported on Tuesday’s AM Update, the three news organizations filed a lawsuit in federal court Monday morning after their reporters were denied entry to the White House over the weekend and had their credentials confiscated by the Secret Service.
The president announced the ban late last week, accusing the outlets of repeatedly publishing what he described as fiction and lies. The media organizations, meanwhile, argue the White House retaliated against them because of their reporting–revoking their access without warning or an opportunity to appeal.
The Lawsuit
MS NOW legal affairs reporter Fallon Gallagher broke down those two claims on the air Monday. “We’ve filed this lawsuit on two big grounds. The first is due process, saying that our reporters were not given appropriate due process before the president implemented this ban. There was no notice. There was no hearing period,” she explained.
“The other part of this is, of course, the First Amendment argument,” Gallagher continued. “This is saying our lawyers are arguing that this is viewpoint discrimination and it is retaliatory because the president doesn’t like our coverage. You cannot do that under the First Amendment. There is abundant case law that says you cannot arbitrarily bar reporters from the White House once you’ve decided to let them in.”
According to the White House, the First Amendment protects the outlets’ right to publish but does not guarantee a White House credential, briefing-room seat, or place in the press pool. In a Tuesday court filing, the Justice Department argued White House access is a privilege and accusing the three outlets of falling short of its standards, including reporting it says threatened national security.
The administration also pointed to an earlier court ruling allowing restrictions to the Associated Press’ access to certain spaces, including the Oval Office, to go into effect. The DOJ argued the president should have similar discretion across the White House grounds.
The Fallout
In the meantime, the ban immediately disrupted television coverage of the president. CNN had been scheduled to handle Monday’s White House television pool duties as part of a rotation involving CNN, ABC, CBS, NBC, and Fox News. The networks take turns covering events where space is limited and then share their footage with other news organizations.
After the White House prevented CNN from taking its turn, the remaining networks declined to step in, thus suspending TV pool coverage of President Trump. That meant there was no pool coverage of President Trump marking the opening of a new granite helicopter pad on the White House lawn.
The White House carried the ceremony on its own social media channels, but the sound of Marine One drowned out Trump’s remarks without broadcast microphones present. Newsmax, which attempted to broadcast the White House feed, noted the problem in real time.
But the absence of the White House pool did not preventing every appearance from receiving live television coverage. Local New York affiliates, which are not part of the pool, carried a news conference outside Gracie Mansion in Manhattan Monday afternoon following a meeting between the president and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani.
The issue was raised when Mamdani said he told Trump the media would be present because “that is something that I believe in is everyone, no matter the opinion or the critique that we engage.”
The president, on the other hand, used the presser as an opportunity to double down. “It’s interesting because they said they were going to boycott me, but they never boycott me, so I wasn’t very worried about that. Look at all that press,” he said of those in attendance.
“I never get anything positive. It’s always negative… If you look at CNN, it’s fake news. If you look at MS Now, I don’t even know what MS Now is… but it’s just biased news,” Trump continued. “And I think that these outlets have an obligation to be fair. And if they’re fake news, I really think I have an obligation not to allow them into another very special house. This is a special house, Gracie Mansion. Well, the White House is the most special of all houses.”
In an apparent effort to further counter the effect of the bans, the White House announced the creation of its own round-the-clock streaming channel Monday night called “Trump TV.” The administration described the channel as a continuously updated collection of the president’s major remarks, videos, and other White House highlights.
The Hearing
The case between the White House and media landed before U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly, a Trump-appointee who ordered the administration to restore CNN Correspondent Jim Acosta’s credential during a similar dispute in 2018. On Wednesday, he held a hearing on the media outlets’ request for an emergency order.
Attorney Theodore Boutrous, who is representing CNN, MS NOW, and Politico, said Trump has made their case for them by repeatedly criticizing their journalism while defending the ban. “He keeps proving our point… He’s really our lead witness here,” Boutrous argued.
He also took issue with the fact that the White House gave reporters no warning, no clear rules they had broken, and no chance to respond before taking away their access.
The administration, meanwhile, offered two answers. DOJ attorney Michael Velchik argued the outlets’ reporting raised national security concerns and that the White House gave them a way to contest the ban in letters sent Tuesday. Those letters called the ban “preliminary” and gave the organizations until Friday to challenge it.
Judge Kelly zeroed in on the timing, questioning whether an appeal offered after reporters are barred addresses the lack of advance notice. He also pointed to a separate issue: wWether reporters had been told what standards they were expected to follow in the first place.
On rebuttal, Boutrous noted the national security rationale surfaced only after the president announced the ban and questioned whether an appeal to the same White House would offer the outlets a meaningful chance to get back in.
Temporary Reprieve
While Judge Kelly initially gave no indication of when he would rule on the matter, he issued an order early Wednesday directing the administration to immediately restore the outlets’ press passes for 14 days.
Judge Kelly found the media entities are likely to succeed on their due process claim and also cast doubt on the administration’s national security explanation for the ban since President Trump initially blamed it on what he called “fake news.” The judge found little evidence that restoring the press passes would put national security at risk.
The media’s legal victory reportedly turned into another battle at the White House gates Wednesday morning. According to Politico, a Secret Service agent told one of its reporters he was not cleared to enter and confiscated his press pass. CNN said correspondent Betsy Klein and a photojournalist were also turned away, even as one CNN producer managed to get inside. MS NOW similarly reported a journalist was denied entry.
The three outlets rushed back to court and asking Judge Kelly to intervene ahead of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s White House visit. He gave the administration until 12:30pm to explain why journalists were still being turned away.
White House press operations director Micah Stopperich told the court his staff started restoring credentials at 7:10am and finished by 9:55am. Journalists from the outlets reportedly gained entry around noon after the morning’s repeated attempts and just ahead of the judge’s deadline.
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