The White House has been ordered to restore access to the Associated Press to President Donald Trump in areas where other journalists are permitted, a federal judge ruled on Tuesday.
Judge Trevor McFadden of the D.C. Circuit ruled in favor of AP, ruling in a 41-page order that the government could not choose which reporters it permits access to based on “viewpoint” because it violates the First Amendment.
The White House now must “put the AP on an equal playing field” with the other journalists, McFadden said.
The president had limited the wire service’s access to key events by barring its reporters from the Oval Office, Air Force One, other areas, and in the rotating pool of daily reporters after the news organization made the editorial decision not to refer to the Gulf of Mexico as the “Gulf of America,” as Trump had named it.
McFadden clarified that the order does not require the administration to give access to all eligible journalists or prohibit the government from choosing which journalists it gives interviews or questions to – but that it could not bar certain reporters on viewpoint alone.
“The Court simply holds that under the First Amendment, if the Government opens its doors to some journalists —be it to the Oval Office, the East Room, or elsewhere — it cannot then shut those doors to other journalists because of their viewpoints. The Constitution requires no less,” McFadden wrote.
The ruling is a win for free speech advocates who had accused Trump of violating the First Amendment by punishing AP for using generally preferred terminology.
The White House insisted officials were not discriminating against AP specifically, but simply narrowing the pool of journalists who cover the president and the White House to allow other smaller publications to report.
But in its lawsuit against the administration, AP argued the news organization was being targeted because its reporters were not recognizing Trump’s new name for the Gulf of Mexico. AP, one of the world’s biggest news services, justified its decision to refer to the body of water as the Gulf of Mexico because the gulf was far more commonly known as such.
McFadden sided with AP, saying the administration had been “brazen” about its reasoning for restricting the news organization.
“Several high-ranking officials have repeatedly said that they are restricting the AP’s access precisely because of the organization’s viewpoint,” McFadden wrote.
During a hearing last week, AP employees testified about the impact of the White House restriction on its access.
The AP’s Chief White House Correspondent Zeke Miller testified that the outlet’s limited access meant its coverage does not have “the same level of completeness” that it once did.
Evan Vucci, the chief photographer for AP in Washington D.C., said it left the news organization “dead in the water” on major stories.
The judge agreed the AP had been irreparably harmed by the administration’s decision.
The Independent has asked the White House for comment.
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