Federal judge orders White House must restore press passes to 3 banned news outlets

Filed 1h ago · Via Michigan Advance · The Buffoon Desk

THIS STORY IS SCORED

Royal Banana

Kevin MacLeod · incompetech.com · CC BY 4.0

Photo: Delaram, Francis; printmaker; British artist, active 1615-16 · Public domain · via Wikimedia Commons

A federal judge has temporarily blocked the Trump administration's ban of CNN, MS NOW, and POLITICO from White House grounds, ordering hard passes restored within days as the case proceeds. Judge Timothy Kelly, a Trump appointee, found the outlets likely to prevail on due process grounds and set a 14-day window while litigation continues, with a hearing on a longer-lasting injunction still to come.

Kelly was openly unpersuaded by the Justice Department's national security justification, noting some cited articles were written by reporters who never held White House passes in the first place. He pointed out that Trump himself, in announcing the ban, cited the outlets' alleged dishonesty and negative coverage rather than any security concern, undercutting the government's own courtroom argument.

The lawsuit was filed Monday after the three outlets were barred over the weekend; Trump has signaled he'll appeal, though Kelly noted such temporary orders are generally not appealable. The White House did not respond to a request for comment.

The full dispatch is available from the source below.

✒ FROM THE EDITORIAL DESK

You can tell the real reason for a decision by watching what the person does when nobody's grading the excuse, and here the excuse fell apart in the judge's own hands. Calling it a security matter and then admitting out loud it was about hurt feelings over coverage is like telling the insurance man the fence fell down in a storm while standing next to the chainsaw. The judge who caught it was appointed by the very man doing the banning, which ought to tell you something about how thin the argument really was.

Source: Read the original at Michigan Advance → Scored: Royal Banana · Kevin MacLeod · CC BY 4.0

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