White House won't back down as attorney predicts how Trump's latest press tussle will play out in court
An attorney at a nonprofit that defends the First Amendment doesn't think President Donald Trump will come out on top in a legal battle with three media outlets he banned from the White House.
But after announcing on Friday his ban of CNN, MS NOW and Politico — and the resulting lawsuit against him — the White House told Fox News Digital that Trump isn't backing down.
"I think the Trump administration will not fare well in court because its action here is blatantly unconstitutional," predicted Aaron Terr, the director of public advocacy at the Philadelphia-based Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE).
Trump took to TRUTH Social on Friday to announce that employees with the three major media outlets will be banned from White House grounds over "reporting FAKE NEWS. He said they "shouldn't be able to constantly write or report FICTION and LIES when they're covering the President of the United States."
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Terr says that what media outlets report is not at issue.
"There's settled precedent that when the White House opens its doors to the press, which it has done, the First Amendment walks in too," Terr said. "So that means the administration can't ban reporters from the White House grounds just because it doesn't like their point of view or thinks their coverage is too negative or critical, and the president in his statements has been crystal clear that this was the exact reason that he banned CNN, MSN, and ... Politico from the entire White House grounds."
Reporters and cameramen with the outlets removed their gear and set up on Pennsylvania Ave. over the weekend and this week continued to film live hits from across the street rather than from their usual spots on White House grounds.
In response to Terr's assessment, the White House remained defiant about the ban.
"The Fake News has no place demanding a spot in the President’s Oval Office," the White House said. "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."
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Monday morning, the three news outlets filed a lawsuit against Trump seeking an injunction that would halt the president's ban temporarily, and asking the court to immediately order the restoration of the media members' White House credentials.
CNN was scheduled for White House television pool coverage on Monday. Fox News Media, ABC News, CBS News and NBC News, the other press pool networks, announced in a joint statement that they would not take CNN's place.
"The public has a vital interest in receiving accurate, independent information about its government. No administration should restrict a news organization because it objects to its reporting," the pool members said in a joint statement.
Additionally, White House Correspondents' Association (WHCA) President Jacqui Heinrich of Fox News, released a statement expressing the organization's support of the outlets.
"Today’s action revoking access for journalists from CNN, POLITICO, and MSNOW violates the First Amendment," she wrote. "The implications extend beyond these organizations: a standard used to exclude one news outlet because of its coverage could be applied to any outlet in the future."
"The American people, through a free and independent press, must be able to scrutinize those elected to power, regardless of whether government officials view it favorably," she continued. "The WHCA calls on the administration to immediately restore our colleagues’ access."
Terr said that while nobody has a First Amendment right to report from the White House, he said court precedent established that once a media outlet gains access to the White House, that access cannot be revoked for ideological reasons.
"The principle here is that once the government provides access, it then can't condition that access on whether you're expressing a viewpoint that the government agrees with," he said. "It's a broader First Amendment principle that the government cannot retaliate against Americans for protected speech, and that includes revoking news outlets' access to a space open to the press just because the president doesn't like the actual or perceived slant of their report."
Terr noted that while there can be bias in media, the alternative of government-controlled media could result in a much worse outcome.
"The First Amendment is designed to prevent exactly that type of government control over the flow of information in a free society," he said. "The First Amendment guarantees that reporters are free to cover the news in a way that they think is best, and it's up to the American public to hear what they have to say and decide whether or not to trust them and their coverage of the government and other issues in our society."