U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly ordered the Trump administration early Thursday to immediately restore White House access to CNN, MS NOW and Politico, ruling that the three outlets are likely to succeed on their claim that their press credentials were revoked without constitutionally adequate due process.
Kelly, whom President Donald Trump appointed to the bench during his first term, issued the temporary restraining order hours after an emergency hearing on Wednesday. The outlets sued after Trump announced Friday that he was barring them from the White House, accusing them of repeatedly publishing "FAKE NEWS."
In a Truth Social post, Trump slammed the media during his lengthy announcement, writing:
Media Outlets shouldn't be able to constantly write or report FICTION and LIES when they're covering the President of the United States, the Trump Administration, or the United States of America. Other Fake News Media Outlets to follow.
Kelly's order focused heavily on how the White House revoked the credentials. The outlets were denied access Saturday, but letters outlining the administration's reasons for the action and offering them an opportunity to contest it were not sent until Tuesday.
Kelly wrote in his ruling that:
The 'general rule' is that 'individuals must receive notice and an opportunity to be heard before the Government deprives them' of a constitutionally protected interest. Defendants do not dispute that Plaintiffs did not receive notice and an opportunity to be heard before their hard passes were revoked.
The administration argued that some of the outlets' reporting raised national security concerns and defended the president's authority to control the media's access to the White House. The White House had also argued publicly that access is a privilege rather than a right.
Judge Kelly was not persuaded that those arguments defeated the outlets' due process claim. He added:
Certainly, that is not what President Trump said when he announced that he was 'banning' Plaintiffs from the White House — instead, he focused on the alleged lack of truthfulness and negativity of Plaintiffs' reporting. None of Defendants' arguments convince the Court that Plaintiffs are not likely to succeed on their due process claim.
The judge cited D.C. Circuit precedent requiring reporters to receive notice and an opportunity to respond before the White House revokes credentials. Kelly presided over a similar dispute in 2018 involving then-CNN correspondent Jim Acosta and said Wednesday that the existing precedent was central to his consideration of the case.
As RedState reported, Kelly signaled at Wednesday's hearing that due process would be his "first stop" in deciding whether to temporarily block the ban, and that he was bound by D.C. Circuit precedent on the question.
Trump had predicted before the ruling that Kelly would rule against the administration and vowed to appeal. The 14-day restraining order restores the outlets' access immediately while the broader lawsuit proceeds but does not resolve the case on the final merits.