A Judge Restored CNN, MS NOW and Politico's White House Access, Saying Trump's Press Ban Was Likely Unconstitutional

US District Judge Timothy Kelly ordered the White House on Wednesday to restore press access for CNN, MS NOW and Politico, ruling that President Trump's ban on the three outlets was likely unconstitutional and had been carried out without the "constitutionally adequate due process" that reporters are owed before a press pass is pulled. NBC News reported that the judge's 14-day temporary restraining order found the administration's action appeared to conflict directly with two existing federal appeals court rulings, both of which require advance notice and a chance to be heard before a journalist's credentials can be revoked.

A ruling that did not immediately work

The order was messier in practice than on paper. CBS News's report describes reporters from the three outlets still being turned away at the gate on Thursday morning, hours after Kelly's ruling took effect, prompting the judge to order the administration to respond in writing by 12:30pm explaining the discrepancy. The White House began readmitting the affected journalists later that day, though not before CNN and MS NOW said their reporters had also been denied access to cover Xi Jinping's arrival for a state dinner, an incident that unfolded even as the legal fight over the original ban was still being sorted out in real time.

The legal fight is only a stay

CNN's own coverage of the ruling is careful to note the limits of what Kelly actually decided: a temporary restraining order lasting fourteen days while the underlying lawsuit, filed jointly by the three outlets, proceeds through the courts. It is not a final judgment on the ban's constitutionality, and the administration retains the option of trying to revoke the passes again through a process that survives judicial review, or of appealing Kelly's order itself. The White House has previously argued that press access to its grounds is a privilege it can extend or withdraw at its own discretion, a position the judge's initial read of the case did not accept.

Why it matters beyond three newsrooms

The case is being watched well past the three outlets directly involved, because a final ruling against the administration would set a binding limit on how future press bans, of any outlet, for any stated reason, can be carried out. For now, CNN, MS NOW and Politico have their credentials back for at least two weeks, an outcome that leaves the broader question of executive control over the White House press corps exactly where it was before the ban: unresolved, and heading toward another hearing.