Federal Judge Orders White House to Restore Press Access for CNN, MS NOW, Politico

A federal judge ordered the Trump administration this week to restore White House press credentials for journalists at CNN, MS NOW and Politico, ruling that the outlets were likely denied due process when their hard passes were revoked without notice or an opportunity to respond.

U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly, a Trump appointee who restored CNN correspondent Jim Acosta's pass on the same due process theory in 2018, issued a 14-day temporary restraining order early Thursday, hours after an emergency hearing. The three outlets sued Monday after President Trump announced Friday, September 18, that he was "banning" them from the White House over what he called "FAKE NEWS." Reporters were turned away and had their passes deactivated the next day.

Kelly ordered the hard passes restored and refused to delay the order's effective date. He based the ruling on the Fifth Amendment, not the First Amendment claims the outlets also raised. Plaintiffs had shown a likelihood of success "at least on their Fifth Amendment procedural due process claim," he wrote. He did not decide whether the ban amounted to viewpoint discrimination.

The governing standard comes from a 1977 D.C. Circuit decision, Sherrill v. Knight, and from Karem v. Trump. Those cases require two things before the White House revokes an already issued hard pass: notice and a chance to be heard, and published standards specific enough that a reporter can know what conduct is punishable. Kelly found the administration likely failed both. Defendants did not dispute that the outlets received no advance notice. He also treated the White House's stated standard of "professionalism and decorum" as too vague to do the work the precedent requires.

Trump's own announcement focused on the "lack of truthfulness and negativity" of the outlets' reporting. National security language arrived later, in Tuesday letters to the outlets and in the Justice Department's brief, which said the organizations had violated professional standards by "trafficking in verifiable falsehoods about national security" and "publishing sensitive or classified information." Kelly was not persuaded this was the actual motive.

"The court is skeptical, at least on this record, that Defendants' interest in safeguarding national security is the actual motivation for, or is even advanced by, the revocation of Plaintiffs' hard passes," he wrote. Some of the stories cited in the letters dated back months or years. He described them as routine coverage rather than security breaches. Nothing in the pre-lawsuit record, he noted, suggested national security had driven the ban.

One example cited against Politico, a June 2026 story on efforts to end the war in Iran, quoted a "senior administration official" putting the odds of a preliminary deal at 80 to 85 percent. The Washington Post reported that the quote came from an official White House press call whose ground rules required reporters to use that anonymous attribution; later reporting identified the speaker as Vice President JD Vance. Other outlets used the same call and were not banned. It was one of several stories listed in the letters, not the whole case.

Attorney Ted Boutrous, who represents the three outlets, called the ruling "a strong ruling vindicating freedom of the press, due process and the rule of law."

Compliance was uneven. After the overnight order, reporters from the three outlets were still turned away Thursday morning and, in some cases, had passes confiscated again. The outlets notified the court of noncompliance. Kelly ordered a written response by about 12:30 p.m. The White House then said the passes had been restored, and journalists returned to the grounds Thursday afternoon.

That restoration covered hard pass entry to the complex. It did not guarantee a slot at every pre-credentialed event. Thursday evening, journalists from CNN and MS NOW were barred from covering the North Portico arrival ceremony for Chinese President Xi Jinping's state dinner. CNN said it was told it could send camera and audio staff but not an editorial presence. MS NOW reporter Laura Barrón-López said a White House staffer turned her away and told her to take questions to communications director Steven Cheung.

Kelly's order expires in two weeks. He has set a short briefing schedule on a preliminary injunction. The First Amendment claims remain pending.

Analysis: A narrower ruling than the headlines suggest

The ruling has been widely described as a press freedom victory, and in the narrow sense that it restored access, it is one. But Kelly did not hold that the White House lacks authority to control who covers it. He held that this revocation, done without notice, a chance to respond, or adequate standards, likely violated due process. Process can cure a Sherrill problem. It does not automatically cure a retaliation problem. If a later ruling reaches the First Amendment claim, a more formal revocation could still fail.

That is why the order is a temporary restraining order rather than a permanent injunction, and why the administration is not simply free to revoke the same passes next week with a better letter.

It is also worth being precise about who this ruling protects. Due process of this kind attaches to hard passes already issued. White House hard passes are typically built on congressional press gallery credentials, a system run by a committee of working journalists from established outlets, not a neutral government body. The application process for smaller or newer outlets can take six months to a year, with no guarantee of approval. That structure has long favored large, Washington based newsrooms. This case restores incumbents who had already cleared that gate. It does not open the gate for independent outlets that never received a hard pass, regardless of the accuracy or depth of their reporting. That is a critique of the credentialing regime, not a hole in Kelly's order.

Sources:

• CNN — "CNN, MS NOW and Politico allowed back into the White House after judge orders Trump admin to restore access"

• NBC News — "Journalists for CNN, MS NOW and Politico return to the White House upon judge's orders"

• The Washington Post — "CNN, MS NOW and Politico allowed back at the White House after judge blocked Trump's ban"

• MS NOW — "MS NOW, CNN and Politico regain White House access after judge orders press passes restored"

• The Hill — "Judge orders White House to immediately restore access to CNN, MS NOW, Politico"