Judge Declines To Order White House To Immediately Restore AP’s Access To Events After Trump’s “Gulf Of America” Ban

A federal judge declined to order the White House to immediately restore the Associated Press‘ access to the Oval Office and various White House events, after Donald Trump restricted the news organization as punishment for failing to change references of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America.

U.S. District Court Judge Trevor McFadden ruled that the AP had not met the threshold for a temporary restraining order, but he did set the case on a expedited schedule, vowing that he would keep an “open mind” about the issues at hand.

But McFadden, a Trump appointee in his first term, also warned White House officials that case law over press access does not weigh in their favor, while suggesting that they may want to consider changes to its policy against the news outlet. During 90 minutes of oral argument, McFadden said at one point that he found the White House rationale for excluding the AP as “problematic” given that it was based on the news service’s content.

The AP sued Trump administration officials Friday, more than a week after the White House first started cutting off access to the wire service from pool duty of Trump’s comments in the Oval Office, as well as other events and travel on Air Force One.

On his first day in office, Trump issued an executive order renaming the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America. In its style guidance, the AP said it would retain the name Gulf of Mexico, noting it was an international body of water and that other countries had not yet recognized the name change.

In its brief filed today, the White House’s legal team said it was up to the president who decided who got “special access” to such events, just as it would be Trump’s prerogative who to grant an interview.

At the hearing though, Charles Tobin, attorney for the AP, said that by inviting reporters to cover the Oval Office as part of a pool, or to larger events in the East Room, it triggered a “liberty interest” on the part of the media organization. Such an interest prohibits arbitrary exclusion of an outlet based on their content. He also argued that the White House failed to give its reporters due process, as it informed them of the punishment after the decision was made.

“All access to the White House is special,” Tobin said. “Once you let people in, it becomes a different analysis.”