• by Wendy Davis , 2 hours ago

CNN, Politico and MS NOW are urging a federal judge to extend his earlier order that required the administration to restore the press credentials that allow reporters to access the White House.

The news outlets argue in papers filed this week that a White House ban would "substantially interfere" with their ability to cover the administration and "fulfill their constitutionally protected role in our democracy."

The dispute over access to the White House began last month, when President Donald Trump announced on Truth Social that he was ousting the organizations.

"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.

The organizations sued and sought a court order restoring the "hard passes" that allow access to the White House. They claimed the administration violated the First Amendment by retaliating against them for their news stories, and also violated their right to due process of law by revoking the press passes without providing advance notice or an opportunity to object.

U.S. District Court Judge Timothy Kelly in Washington, D.C., ruled on Sept. 24 that the news outlets were likely to prove the administration violated the outlets' constitutional right to due process of law by summarily canceling their press passes. When Kelly issued that ruling, he handed down an emergency restraining order that required the White House to restore the publications' press credentials for two weeks.

The news organizations are now petitioning Kelly to issue a preliminary injunction that would restore the credentials for a longer period of time.

"This Court already correctly determined that the balance of equities and public interest favored a temporary restraining order against the enforcement of the ban. Defendants offer nothing that would justify a different conclusion now," they argued in their most recent papers.

The administration opposes that request, arguing in papers filed late last week that Trump has a "compelling" interest "in enforcing minimum standards for bona fide journalists and safeguarding national security information."

"Defendants may lawfully deny access to plaintiffs because the President has concluded they fail to satisfy the minimum requirements of professionalism," the U.S. Department of Justice argued in its written filing.

The Justice Department wrote that Trump "determined that plaintiffs have reported classified or sensitive information bearing on national security," adding that he "has a compelling interest in excluding from White House grounds organizations that pose such a risk to national security."

The administration made a similar argument to Kelly last month. At the time, he said he was "skeptical" 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 in his Sept. 24 order.

"Nothing in the record that predates this suit suggests that the revocation of plaintiffs' hard passes was motivated by national security concerns," he added. "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."

The news organizations say in their latest papers that the White House hasn't "come forward with a shred of evidence" supporting the idea that Trump banned them for publishing national security information.

The administration's "post hoc litigation-driven justifications do not overcome what the President himself has repeatedly said both before and after the ban," the news outlets argue, adding that Trump "has continued to admit that he imposed the ban based on the content and perceived viewpoints of Plaintiffs’ coverage, without even mentioning national security as a justification."

They specifically call attention to Trump's recent comments in Time magazine that CNN and MS Now are "fake news."

Time asked Trump, "Why should Americans believe that you respect the free press when you're restricting access to the White House to some of our colleagues?"

He answered, "Because I do respect the free press, but I don't respect fake news."

Trump later added that he hasn't "had a good story on CNN for years."

Kelly is expected to hold a hearing in the matter Thursday morning.