CNN, MS NOW and Politico have filed a federal lawsuit challenging the Trump administration’s decision to bar their journalists from the White House, alleging that the restrictions violate the First and Fifth Amendments.
The case was filed on 21 September in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. The three news organisations are seeking a temporary restraining order restoring their journalists’ access while the wider constitutional challenge proceeds. The case has been assigned to U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly.
The dispute follows President Donald Trump’s announcement on 18 September that CNN, MS NOW and Politico would be excluded from the White House. Trump said the decision reflected what he described as persistently false and negative reporting by the outlets. The following day, CNN senior White House reporter Betsy Klein, MS NOW correspondent Akayla Gardner and Politico reporter Cheyenne Haslett were denied entry, with their White House credentials deactivated or confiscated.
The plaintiffs argue that the restrictions amount to unconstitutional Pentagon Press Access Policy Ruled Unconstitutional by U.S. Court because, they allege, access was withdrawn in response to the content of their journalism. They also rely on the Fifth Amendment, arguing that their credentials were removed without advance notice or a procedure through which the decision could be challenged. The administration disputes the characterisation of the restrictions as an attack on press freedom. Trump has said the action targets what he calls “fake news”, rather than the press generally.
Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher is representing the news organisations. Theodore Boutrous, Katie Townsend and Connor Sullivan, co-chairs of the firm’s First Amendment and free expression practice, are leading the team, alongside associates Patrick Fuster and Connor Mui. Boutrous said the administration had explicitly linked the restrictions to reporting it disliked and that the plaintiffs would seek prompt judicial review.
The litigation comes against an unsettled backdrop concerning White House NYT sues Pentagon over restrictive press-access rules. In 2025, the Associated Press challenged restrictions imposed after it continued to use the name Gulf of Mexico despite Trump’s executive order adopting “Gulf of America”. U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden initially granted the AP a preliminary injunction, holding that the government could not exclude it from otherwise open press opportunities because of its viewpoint.
The D.C. Circuit later stayed most of that injunction while the appeal proceeded, allowing the administration temporarily to restrict AP access to certain limited presidential spaces. The stay did not apply to the East Room. That distinction between general White House credentials and access to more restricted presidential events could become relevant in the new litigation.
The latest restrictions have also affected the television press pool. CNN had been scheduled to provide pooled coverage during Trump’s trip to New York for the United Nations General Assembly, but was removed from that role. ABC, CBS, CNN, Fox News and NBC subsequently suspended their rotational television-pool coverage of presidential events rather than replace CNN.
The White House Correspondents’ Association has called for the outlets’ access to be restored. The immediate legal question before Judge Kelly is whether CNN, MS NOW and Politico are entitled to emergency relief while their Why Trump’s $10bn WSJ Defamation Lawsuit Failed viewpoint-discrimination and Fifth Amendment due-process claims are litigated. No ruling on those claims has yet been made.