US judge orders Trump to lift White House ban on news outlets

A federal judge in the United States has ruled that President Donald Trump must restore access to the White House newsrooms for journalists from CNN, MSNBC, and Politico. Judge Tim Kelly made the decision in a lawsuit filed by the news organizations, challenging the ban imposed by the Trump administration on September 18. The judge dismissed the government's claim that the ban was made for national security reasons, stating that there was insufficient evidence to support this assertion.

Instead, Kelly found that the ban was likely unconstitutional, as it violated the First Amendment protections for free speech and a free press, as well as the due process rights of the journalists. Trump had claimed that the ban was due to the outlets' "lack of truthfulness and negativity" in their reporting. The news organizations filed the lawsuit just weeks before the November 3 midterm elections, during which Trump and his fellow Republicans are seeking to retain control of Congress.

Throughout the legal proceedings, the Justice Department attempted to justify the ban on national security grounds, but the judge was skeptical of this argument. Two previous precedents set by the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit confirmed that journalists have the right to due process before their White House press passes can be revoked.

The judge also noted that there was no evidence that the White House had provided the targeted news outlets a fair opportunity to contest the revocation of their access.