A federal judge issued an order extending White House access for journalists from CNN, MS NOW, and POLITICO while a lawsuit against the Trump administration plays out.

The outlets previously sued the administration after it barred them from the White House complex.

U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly issued a preliminary injunction on Tuesday, which followed a prior 14-day temporary restraining order.

NBC News shared further:

Kelly sided with the news outlets, noting that Trump used national security as a reason for the ban after their press passes had already been revoked and ruling that it also likely violated reporters’ freedom of speech and due process rights.

“There is practically nothing national security-related in the record connected to the President’s decision to revoke Plaintiffs’ hard passes to which the Court can defer,” Kelly wrote in his 26-page opinion.

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His order will give the outlets access to the White House until the underlying lawsuit challenging the ban is resolved. But it doesn’t require the administration to allow reporters from the outlets access to the Oval Office or Air Force One — locations where the administration has blocked reporters from CNN and Politico in recent weeks.

Kelly had issued a temporary restraining order lifting the ban while he weighed whether to issue an injunction.

The Trump administration appealed Kelly’s order Wednesday afternoon. In a statement Wednesday, a White House spokesperson said: “The Fake News has no place demanding a spot in the President’s Oval Office. The lies they smear are a disservice to the American public and tear at the very fabric of our Democracy. They’re completely capable of reporting from directly outside.”

“Defendants (except for President Trump) and their agents, representatives, and all persons or entities acting in concert with them, shall not execute, implement, or enforce the September 18, 2026, decision to revoke the White House ‘hard pass’ press credentials held by employees of CNN, MS NOW, and POLITICO, thereby maintaining the status quo since the Court’s entry of a temporary restraining order on September 24, 2026,” the judge wrote, according to The Guardian.

More from The Guardian:

During arguments at the E Barrett Prettyman federal courthouse in Washington, Kelly seemed inclined to lift the ban indefinitely, telling a lawyer for the federal government that his side had “a notice problem” that was “probably the biggest hurdle” they had to overcome.

The Trump White House gave no advance notice to the media companies affected to say that they were at risk of losing their press badges, which the news organizations have said are essential to their ability to cover the administration. While the White House sent letters to the media companies informing them of the ban, they did so post-hoc, after building access had already been cut off, in violation of binding court precedent.

In his ruling on Tuesday, Judge Kelly wrote that the plaintiffs “are likely to succeed not only on their due process claim, but also on their two First Amendment claims”. While access to the White House is not guaranteed, court precedent dictates that once it is provided to journalists, it cannot be taken away for editorial or viewpoint-based reasons.

During arguments for a preliminary injunction on 8 October, media lawyer Theodore J Boutrous told the judge that Trump had offered a “confession” – in a Time magazine interview last week – that he was banning the media companies explicitly because of the content of their reporting, not because of any other considerations, such as national security.

“The case has gotten stronger for the plaintiffs thanks to President Trump,” Boutrous told the judge.

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The judge seemed to agree. “President Trump’s own comments suggest that he intended the revocation of Plaintiffs’ hard passes to alter their reporting on him, bolstering the case that his action here is sufficient to deter a reporter of ordinary firmness from reporting in the same way she had before,” he wrote.

 

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