Court ruling lets White House ban on the Associated Press continue, for now

A federal judge has rejected the Associated Press’ plea that President Trump immediately let its reporters resume covering major events at the White House, on Air Force One and elsewhere.

In denying the AP’s request for a temporary restraining order, however, U.S. District Court Judge Trevor McFadden ordered an expedited consideration of its lawsuit. The AP is seeking to overturn the ban altogether; the judge set a court hearing for March 20, at which he will consider the motion.

McFadden, a Trump appointee, found that there was not sufficient reason to issue an emergency degree; as Justice Department lawyers argued, the news agency has been able to rely on footage and coverage provided by other outlets.

However, the judge took pains to observe that the law has been “unhelpful” to administrations that have sought to put bans in place in the past, according to the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press. He advised government attorneys to reconsider their policy.

A dispute over what to call the Gulf

For nearly two weeks, the Trump administration has kept AP reporters from covering major events due to the news service’s unwillingness to designate the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America, as Trump had decreed in an executive order on his first day in office. The Justice Department argued, on the administration’s behalf, that access to the president is a privilege, not a right.

Trump told reporters last week, “We’re going to keep them out until such time as they agree that it’s the Gulf of America.”

The news agency had argued that the ban – which Edward Martin, the acting U.S. attorney for D.C, said in court papers emanated from Trump himself – was a violation of its First Amendment rights.

Judge McFadden "had a number of questions throughout the hearing that got to the fact that this is clearly viewpoint discrimination," said Gabe Rottman, a senior attorney for the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, who filed a friend of the court brief on the side of the AP. "And under the First Amendment, viewpoint discrimination is particularly disfavored. It's almost never allowed.. It is 'poison' to a free society."

After the ruling, the AP said it looked ahead to the March hearing. "We will continue to stand for the right of the press and the public to speak freely without government retaliation," AP spokesperson Lauren Easton said in a statement. "This is a fundamental American freedom."

The White House called the ruling a victory in a separate statement issued to NPR.

"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 White House press office said. The White House said it sought to hold "Fake News accountable for their lies" and called itself "the most transparent Administration in history."

Martin also assailed the news agency in a social media post shortly before the judge's ruling. "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," he wrote. (The punctuation reflects that contained in Martin's post.)

In taking the oath of office, Martin and other Justice Department attorneys swear fealty to the U.S. Constitution, not the president or any other person.

A historic presence in White House reporting pool

The AP serves audiences and news organizations across the globe; its stylebook is used by its journalists, as well as other news organizations and institutions. It recommends that writers use the body of water's historic name, but acknowledge Trump's desired shift in language.

In its lawsuit, the AP said that the White House's retaliation is a threat to freedom.

Such events as Trump's press conference with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi were off limits to AP reporters, as was Trump's press conference at which he explained he intended to keep the ban on AP reporters at key events.

The AP's lawsuit says it has "participated in the White House press pool since its creation over a century ago."

The news agency says "that has made it possible for the AP to deliver to the public timely and thorough reporting on the president almost everywhere he goes, which is information critical to the public."

In a written response filed ahead of the hearing, the Justice Department argued that the AP, like other news organizations, can cover the White House. There is no constitutional protection of what it termed "special media access," wrote Martin and the head of the civil division in his office, Brian Hudak.

Their legal brief contained links to AP dispatches based on the materials it was able to acquire while not being allowed to attend events in person. (In one such instance, an AP visual journalist was present while a colleague who was a reporter was shut out.)

Members of the White House Correspondents' Association, including the Trump-friendly outlets Fox News and Newsmax, wrote privately in support of restoring AP's access to reporting pools.

AP guidance influences writers worldwide

On Tuesday, White House Chief of Staff Susan Wiles wrote that the White House took its action because the AP Stylebook is widely relied upon for writing and editing, by "journalists, scholars, and classrooms around our country."

She added, "We remain hopeful that the name of the [Gulf] will be appropriately reflected in the Stylebook where American audiences are concerned."

AP Executive Editor Julie Pace flew to Florida and met with Wiles in hopes of persuading her otherwise.

The AP's legal briefs point to the interest of the president and the White House in insisting on specific word choices – what the news service considers to be independent editorial judgements – as the free speech violation demanding judicial correction.

White House spokesperson Steven Cheung had said that the White House would beat the AP in court, referring to its journalists as political partisans, and saying their "peanut-sized brains" had "rotted."

Even so, Trump seemed to anticipate the White House might lose on the issue, musing aloud to a group of Republican governors last week, "Doesn't matter. It's just something that we feel strongly about."

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