New York Times Files Motion for Compliance in Pentagon Press Rights Case

The New York Times has filed a motion compelling compliance from the Pentagon in an ongoing court saga regarding journalist restrictions and rights under the Trump administration. The Times asserts that Pete Hegseth’s latest Pentagon policies, enacted Monday, do not properly adhere to the ruling that came down on Friday granting more press access in the Pentagon.

“As we stated previously and reiterated in today’s filing, the Pentagon’s new policy still does not comply with the judge’s order or the law. Instead of increasing the free press’s right to report on behalf of the public as ordered, the new policy instead imposes even tighter restrictions,” said Charlie Stadtlander, a spokesperson for The New York Times. “The Times is simply seeking the government’s adherence to the order made clear in last week’s court ruling.”

“As the events unfolding every day make clear: Americans deserve visibility into how their government is being run, and the actions the military is taking in their name and with their tax dollars,” Stadtlander continued.

In the new filing, the Times notes that the court ordered on Friday that the news organization’s Pentagon Facilities Alternate Credentials (PFACs) be reinstated and that Hegseth and the Pentagon could no longer implement unconstitutional Challenged Provisions as a means to deny, revoke, suspend or refrain from renewing said PFACs.

“The Interim Policy is an attempted end-run around this Court’s ruling. In its memorandum accompanying the Interim Policy, the Department does not hide its disregard for this Court’s Order. It accuses the Court of ‘mischaracterize[ing]’ and engaging in ‘creative misinterpretations’ of the Policy, and announces its ‘disagree[ment]’ with the Court’s ruling and its intent to appeal,” the Times’ new filing reads.

On Friday, a federal judge ruled that the Pentagon’s restrictions against journalists were unconstitutional, violating their rights under both the First and Fifth Amendments. The Times sued the Defense Department in December after they, and many other news outlets, were forced to surrender their press passes under new regulations in October.

The judge’s Friday ruling voided these restrictions, with reporters set to return as normal on Monday. However, a New York Times spokesperson told TheWrap on Monday that Hegseth’s new restrictions still failed to comply with their rights under the judge’s ruling.

“The new policy does not comply with the judge’s order,” they said. “It continues to impose unconstitutional restrictions on the press. We will be going back to court.”

“In sum, instead of complying with the Court’s Order, Defendants are attempting to circumvent it, and to deprive Plaintiffs of the relief they are entitled to. The Department’s open defiance of this Court’s Order is improper, retaliatory, prejudicial to Plaintiffs, and disrespectful to the Court, the Constitution, and the American public—who, as the Court explained, relies on independent reporting about the Department and its leadership in order to obtain ‘information from a variety of perspectives about what its government is doing,'” the motion for compliance reads.

You can find the full filing from The New York Times here.

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