A federal judge on Monday cleared the way for the White House to continue barring The Associated Press from covering news events with President Trump as the fight over freedom of speech plays out in court.
The Associated Press sued several top Trump administration officials last week, accusing them of violating the First and Fifth Amendments by barring its reporters from press events. The White House has objected to the wire service’s decision to continue to refer to the Gulf of Mexico in its coverage, rather than calling the body of water the Gulf of America.
Judge Trevor N. McFadden of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, who was appointed by Mr. Trump, said that The Associated Press’s circumstances were “not the type of dire situation” that would require emergency intervention against the White House, in part because the organization was still able to report the news through shared reports sent out to all media organizations in the White House Correspondents’ Association.
While Judge McFadden said he was hesitant to force the Trump administration’s hand, he seemed sympathetic to arguments against the White House, including that its actions appeared to be designed to coerce or punish the news organization over a language choice, which, he repeatedly said, amounted to “viewpoint discrimination.”
The news organization had requested a restraining order to prevent the White House from excluding its journalists from events where the president routinely makes news, such as when he signs executive orders in the Oval Office and often speaks unscripted to the journalists assembled to watch.
The White House celebrated the judge’s move.
“As we have said from the beginning, asking the president of the United States questions in the Oval Office and aboard Air Force One is a privilege granted to journalists, not a legal right,” the statement said.
On Monday, when President Emmanuel Macron of France met with Mr. Trump at the White House, the French press corps decided that a Paris-based reporter from The Associated Press would ask their first question during the planned joint news conference. She was allowed to do so, according to a report issued by the press pool, the rotating group of journalists who travel with the president and have reserved seats in otherwise walled-off events in the White House complex.
Lawyers defending the Trump administration had argued that it was the president’s prerogative to choose which members of the news media to allow into otherwise restricted areas including the Oval Office, Air Force One and his residence at the Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. They argued that the makeup of the press pool, which traditionally comprises just 13 people, but always includes The Associated Press and other wire services, can be changed at the president’s discretion without “offending the Constitution.”
They denied that the decision amounted to retaliation or coercion.
“This case is not about prohibiting The Associated Press from entering White House grounds. Nor is it about prohibiting The Associated Press from attending briefings in the James S. Brady Briefing Room or using other press facilities at the White House,” the lawyers wrote in a filing on Monday.
“Instead, this case is about The Associated Press losing special media access to the president — a quintessentially discretionary presidential choice that infringes no constitutional right,” they wrote.
At the hearing on Friday, Brian P. Hudak, a lawyer representing the Trump administration officials, likened participation in the press pool to other “special access events,” such as one-on-one sit-down interviews with the president, which he said presidents have no obligation to give to every organization.
But Judge McFadden appeared to disagree, saying that while there would appear to have been “any number of content-neutral reasons” for excluding The Associated Press’s print journalists and photographers, it was clear that the administration had picked a fight with the organization over its content.
Earlier in the day, Ed Martin, the interim U.S. attorney in Washington, denounced The Associated Press on social media.
“As President Trumps’ lawyers, we are proud to fight to protect his leadership as our President and we are vigilant in standing against entities like the AP that refuse to put America first,” Mr. Martin said.
The extraordinary statement, coming from a federal prosecutor amid ongoing litigation and suggesting that Justice Department attorneys are the “president’s lawyers” rather than lawyers who represent the government, only added to the tension as both sides prepared to continue litigating.
“We look forward to our next hearing on March 20 where we will continue to stand for the right of the press and the public to speak freely without government retaliation,” Lauren Easton, a spokeswoman for The Associated Press, said in a statement. “This is a fundamental American freedom.”
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