A federal judge has ordered the Associated Press restored to the White House press pool after President Donald Trump banned the wire service for refusing to adopt his renaming of the Gulf of Mexico as the “Gulf of America.”
The ruling from U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden, a Trump appointee, requires the White House to return the AP’s access to the Oval Office, Air Force One and other limited spaces, whenever those spaces are made available to other journalists in the White House press pool.
“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.
McFadden described the White House’s overt discrimination against the AP as “brazen” and said even in highly restricted spaces like the Oval Office, such discrimination is forbidden for events other than formal interviews.