WASHINGTON—A federal judge today temporarily blocked the Trump administration from barring CNN, MS NOW, and Politico from the White House press facilities. The decision by U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly came in a lawsuit filed by the news organizations against President Trump and three advisors after the administration banned the outlets from the White House and confiscated their reporters’ press credentials. The Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University joined the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press (RCFP) in filing an amicus brief in support of the news organizations earlier this week. 

The following can be attributed to Jameel Jaffer, executive director, Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University:

“We welcome Judge Kelly’s order. Trump’s ban harms both the press and the public, which relies on journalists to report independently on the president and his administration. We hope that Judge Kelly will soon make his temporary order permanent, and that his permanent order addresses the news organizations’ First Amendment claims, not just their Fifth Amendment ones. The First Amendment bars the president from transforming the press corps into a propaganda machine.”

The Knight Institute and RCFP’s amicus brief argues that the press has, for over a century, fulfilled a crucial role by reporting on newsworthy events from within the White House on behalf of the American people, and that the president’s decision to ban news organizations from the White House based on the viewpoints expressed in their reporting violates the First Amendment. Read the brief here.

Read today’s temporary restraining order here.

Read more about the case, CNN v. Trump, here. 

The Knight Institute has supported the Associated Press in its challenge to its exclusion from the White House, filing three separate amicus briefs over a period of 18 months. The Institute has also supported The New York Times in its challenge to restrictions on access to the Pentagon. Earlier, the Institute successfully sued President Trump over his blocking of critics from his Twitter account, which the Institute argued was a “public forum” for First Amendment purposes.

For more information, contact: Lorraine Kenny, [email protected].