The court ordered the Trump administration to restore access to the White House for CNN, MS NOW and Politico journalists

Author, News Department

Place of work, BBC Russian Service

Published 24 September 2026, 08:43 GMT

Updated a minute ago

Reading time: 3 min

A District of Columbia judge has ordered the administration of US President Donald Trump to immediately restore White House passes to CNN, MS NOW and Politico journalists who were banned from the building last week. After this, the Trump administration initially turned away journalists again, but then complied with the court.

Federal Judge Timothy Kelly issued the order, which will remain in effect for 14 days. During this time, the court must quickly decide whether journalists will retain access to the White House during further proceedings.

Kelly concluded that by revoking the journalists' badges without prior notice or an opportunity to challenge the decision, the White House may have violated their constitutional right to due process.

In addition, the judge found that the administration did not provide sufficient grounds for its claims that the restriction of access was dictated by national security interests.

After Kelly made his ruling, employees from CNN, MS NOW and Politico attempted to enter the White House, but were initially turned away. At the same time, as these media outlets stated, Secret Service agents took away passes to the building from those journalists who still had them (some reporters lost their passes as early as Saturday, September 19).

But then, as CNN and MS NOW reported, their journalists were still allowed into the White House. There was still no clarity regarding Politico in the first hour of the day in Washington.

The journalists' lawyers asked for an urgent court hearing due to the fact that the White House, in their opinion, did not comply with Kelly's decision.

Why and how Trump banned journalists' access

Last Friday, President Trump announced on social media that he was stripping journalists from CNN, Politico and MS NOW (formerly MSNBC) of access to the White House. He accused them of “constantly spreading fake news” and warned that similar measures could affect other media outlets.

After this, three media outlets sued the Trump administration. Their lawyers said the decision violates the First Amendment to the US Constitution, which guarantees freedom of speech and the press, as well as the right to due process.

The Trump administration argued in court that the decision was related, among other things, to the threats to national security that the publications of these media outlets allegedly created.

But Kelly found the case file lacked factual evidence to support the defendants' contention and noted that Trump's original statement did not mention national security concerns.

The White House, in particular, referred to publications from CNN, MS NOW and Politico, including materials about construction work in the White House and the construction of a new ballroom.

To this, the judge objected that in most cases, the authors of the publications that caused the administration's complaints did not have permanent passes to the White House at all.

Boycott

On Monday, major US television networks pulled out of the White House pool in protest. The pool allows a limited number of journalists to attend presidential events and share collected materials with other media outlets when it is impossible to provide access to all editorial offices.

Nearly 50 media organizations, including CBS News, the New York Times and Fox News, also filed a brief in support of the lawsuit by CNN, MS NOW and Politico.

Trump regularly criticizes news organizations and has filed lawsuits against a number of media outlets, including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and the BBC.