Judge Orders Trump White House to Restore Access to CNN, MS NOW, Politico Immediately

A federal judge has ordered the White House to immediate reinstate access to CNN, MS NOW and Politico journalists, after President Donald Trump summarily banned them last Friday. U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly of the D.C. Circuit, a Trump appointee, granted the news orgs’ motion for a temporary restraining order in the lawsuit they filed against Trump and three White House officials, alleging the ban violated the First Amendment. The TRO will remain in effect for 14 days. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Popular on Variety The White House must “immediately return, reinstate, and restore the White House ‘hard pass’ press credentials held by employees of CNN, MS NOW, and POLITICO that were revoked on or about September 18, 2026, until further Order of the Court or the expiration of this Temporary Restraining Order,” Kelly wrote in the ruling issued a little after midnight Thursday. A copy of the judge’s ruling is available at this link. The judge found that CNN, MS NOW and Politico demonstrated they were likely to succeed in proving their claims, “at least on their Fifth Amendment procedural due process claim.” Kelly noted that the White House does not dispute that the news outlets “did not receive notice and an opportunity to be heard before their hard passes were revoked.” In the TRO ruling, Kelly did not address the question of whether the White House’s yanking of press access to CNN, MS NOW and Politico infringed their First Amendment rights. Trump announced last Friday (Sept. 18) that he was banning CNN, MS NOW and Politico “effective immediately” from the White House because, as he has claimed hundreds of times before about media outlets he doesn’t like, they are “fake news.” On Monday, CNN, MS NOW and Politico sued Trump and three White House officials over his ban, alleging it violates the First Amendment and “brazenly discriminates based on editorial viewpoint.” In response to Trump’s ban of the news outlets, ABC News, CBS News, NBC News and Fox News — which alongside CNN provide the White House TV pool coverage — announced they were suspending coverage of the president at events because of his ban on the news outlets. The TV pool blackout continued to remain in effect through Thursday.