“Judge orders Trump White House to restore AP access”

A federal judge has ordered the Trump administration to restore The Associated Press’s (AP) access to key White House press venues, ruling that the government violated the First Amendment by excluding AP reporters over the organization’s refusal to adopt the term “Gulf of America” in its style guide.

U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden, a Trump appointee, issued the preliminary injunction on Tuesday, directing the White House to allow AP journalists access to spaces such as the Oval Office, Air Force One, and other restricted areas whenever they are open to other credentialed media members. The ruling also grants AP access to broader events attended by the general White House press corps, though the judge included several important limitations.

“This injunction does not limit the various permissible reasons the Government may have for excluding journalists from limited-access events,” McFadden wrote. “It does not mandate that all eligible journalists, or indeed any journalists at all, be given access to the President or nonpublic government spaces… The Constitution requires no less.”

The decision is temporarily stayed until April 13 to allow time for an appeal. If no higher court intervenes, the order will go into effect.

The Associated Press filed suit earlier this year after its reporters were excluded from the White House press pool and presidential travel coverage. The exclusion followed the AP’s decision not to amend its stylebook to replace “Gulf of Mexico” with “Gulf of America,” a change President Trump had called for after a controversial renaming order.

During a March 27 hearing, AP attorneys argued that the administration’s actions constituted viewpoint-based retaliation, a stance the court ultimately agreed with. Judge McFadden found that while all members of the original press pool continued to use “Gulf of Mexico” in their reporting, only the AP was penalized—evidence that the exclusion was directly linked to the organization’s editorial standards.

“This was a brazen action,” McFadden wrote, citing public statements from White House officials indicating that AP’s refusal to change its terminology was the reason for its removal.

The AP presented testimony from two of its journalists describing how the exclusion hindered their reporting capabilities. Evan Vucci, the outlet’s chief photographer in Washington, said he had gone “from being in every single event to not being able to do anything.” Zeke Miller, AP’s chief White House correspondent, testified that their access was repeatedly denied “because of our journalism.”

Charles Tobin, AP’s legal counsel, called the move “abject retaliation” and warned it could have a chilling effect on press freedom more broadly. The Department of Justice countered that AP reporters remained “eligible” to be selected for press pool duty, but were simply not chosen due to their failure to follow what the president “believes is the law.”

In response to the ruling, AP spokesperson Lauren Easton reaffirmed the organization’s commitment to independent journalism: “This decision affirms the fundamental right to speak freely without government retaliation. This is a freedom guaranteed for all Americans in the U.S. Constitution.”

The case has attracted national attention as a bellwether for press freedom and the limits of executive authority. With tensions between the press and the administration continuing to escalate, Judge McFadden’s ruling serves as a reminder that access to public officials cannot be conditioned on editorial compliance or political agreement.

Source article originally posted here: https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5238923-trump-administration-ap-access/

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