• by Wendy Davis , Yesterday

Siding with news organizations, a federal judge early Thursday issued an emergency order requiring the White House to immediately restore the press credentials of CNN, MS NOW and Politico.

U.S. District Court Judge Timothy Kelly said in an 8-page ruling that the news outlets would likely be able to prove that their constitutional right to due process of law was violated when the administration summarily canceled the "hard passes" that allow access to the White House.

"Plaintiffs have shown a likelihood of success, at least on their Fifth Amendment due process claim," he wrote, adding that the government didn't dispute that the news organizations "did not receive notice and an opportunity to be heard before their hard passes were revoked."

The battle over the press credentials began on September 18, when President Donald Trump announced on Truth Social that he was revoking the outlets' passes.

"Media Outlets shouldn’t be able to constantly write or report FICTION and LIES when they’re covering the President of the United States, the Trump Administration, or the United States of America. Other Fake News Media Outlets to follow," he posted.

On Monday, the three organizations sued and sought a court order restoring the "hard passes" that allow access to the White House. The Justice Department countered the Justice Department is entitled to oust news organizations that have published "sensitive" or classified information.

Ted Boutrous, who represents the news organizations, argued to Kelly at a hearing Wednesday that the national security concerns raised by the Justice Department were pretextual, and that the real reason the passes were revoked was that Trump disliked the news outlets' coverage.

Boutrous also contended the revocations violated the news outlets' due process right to notice of the type of activity that could result in a ban, and an opportunity to object to a ban before it was imposed.

While Kelly based his ruling on the summary nature of the revocations, he also said he was "skeptical" that the ban was driven by security concerns.

"The Court is skeptical -- at least on this record -- that defendants’ interest in safeguarding national security is the actual motivation for, or is even advanced by, the revocation of plaintiffs’ hard passes," he wrote.

"Nothing in the record that predates this suit suggests that the revocation of plaintiffs' hard passes was motivated by national security concerns," he wrote. "Certainly, that is not what President Trump said when he announced that he was 'banning' plaintiffs from the White House -- instead, he focused on the alleged lack of truthfulness and negativity of plaintiffs' reporting."

Kelly added that the after-the-fact reasons provided to the news organizations were "ambiguous about the true purpose of the revocations."

He was referring to letters sent to the news outlets on Tuesday by the White House Press Office, which said the organizations "exhibited behavior in violation of the standards of professionalism and decorum expected of those given access to the White House Complex, including by trafficking in verifiable falsehoods about national security and other issues, and publishing sensitive or classified information."

That statement left open the possibility that the administration revoked the passes because the outlets allegedly published "falsehoods," as opposed to for national security reasons, Kelly said.

He also said there weren't any facts in the record to support the idea that revoking the passes protects national security, or that security "will be endangered if the court orders their passes reinstated while this litigation proceeds."

The order issued Thursday will be in effect for 14 days, but can be extended.