A federal judge has ordered the White House to reinstate the press credentials of CNN, MS NOW, and Politico, granting a temporary restraining order in a lawsuit brought by the outlets and three reporters. Judge Timothy Kelly of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ruled that the plaintiffs are likely to succeed on their Fifth Amendment procedural due process claim, relying on decades-old D.C. Circuit precedent.
The court pointed to Sherrill v. Knight and Karem v. Trump, which established that a bona fide White House correspondent has a liberty interest in a press pass that cannot be revoked without due process. The judge found that the reporters were denied access and had their hard passes deactivated without prior notice or a hearing, and that the White House had not promulgated clear standards governing revocation before the conduct at issue.
Defendants argued that post-deprivation letters explaining the revocations were sufficient and that the reporting endangered national security. The court was unconvinced, noting that the circumstances were not extraordinary enough to bypass the general rule requiring a pre-deprivation hearing. It also expressed skepticism about the national security rationale, observing that some of the cited reporting stretched back months and appeared routine. The order is preliminary, pending further proceedings.