WASHINGTON—The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals today denied The Associated Press's request that the entire court review a June 6, 2025, ruling from a three-judge panel that partially stayed a district court injunction effectively allowing the White House to continue excluding AP reporters from the Oval Office and other restricted spaces based on the news organization's refusal to use “Gulf of America” instead of “Gulf of Mexico” in its reporting.

The following can be attributed to Katie Fallow, deputy litigation director at the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University:

“We’re disappointed that the D.C. Circuit has refused to reconsider its earlier stay decision, which effectively allows the White House to continue banning reporters from the press pool in retaliation for their reporting. The effect of this troubling precedent was demonstrated just yesterday when the White House expelled the Wall Street Journal from an overseas trip press pool in retaliation for its reporting on a letter allegedly tying the president to Jeffrey Epstein. These kinds of viewpoint-based exclusions undermine press freedom as well as the public’s access to reliable information about the president and his policies.”

The Knight Institute filed an amicus brief in the case in March, arguing that the press pool is an expressive forum from which the government cannot constitutionally exclude news organizations based on their viewpoints. The brief also argued that allowing the ban to stand would chill speech by other members of the White House press pool. 

The Institute made a similar argument during President Trump’s first term in challenging Trump’s practice of blocking critics from his social media accounts. Read more about that case here.

Read today’s decision here.

Read more about the case here.

For more information, contact: Adriana Lamirande, [email protected]