Donald Trump White House Press Ban: CNN, MS NOW and Politico To File Lawsuit To Restore Access

CNN, MS NOW and Politico said Monday, September 21, they were suing the Trump administration to protect their First Amendment rights after US President Donald Trump announced that he would ban the three outlets from the White House’s building grounds. The news organizations said they had notified the government that they were filing the lawsuit in the US District Court for the District of Columbia, with emergency hearings potentially taking place as soon as this week.

CNN, MS NOW and Politico Challenge White House Press Access Ban

The three national news outlets said the lawsuit seeks to restore their access to the White House and challenge what they described as government interference with independent journalism, CNN reported. CNN, MS NOW and Politico Banned From White House Over ‘Fake News’: What Donald Trump Said.

“This morning, we notified the government that we are filing a lawsuit today to protect our First Amendment rights and defend the principle that the government does not decide what the press reports or publishes,” the three news organizations said in a joint statement on Monday.

“Without notice or process, the White House revoked our journalists’ credentials because it objected to our reporting,” the news outlets said. “Left unchallenged, this threatens press freedom and the public’s right to independent journalism free from government interference.” WHCA Condemns Donald Trump's Decision to Bar CNN, MS NOW and Politico From White House, Calls It 'Ban on Free Press'.

After Trump announced he was barring the three outlets from the White House because he didn’t like their coverage, reporters’ press passes to access the White House grounds were deactivated.

On Saturday, MS NOW reporter Akayla Gardner, CNN reporter Betsy Klein and Politico reporter Cheyenne Haslett each tried to enter the White House grounds to cover news and were denied entry by the Secret Service, which seized their press passes.

CNN, MS NOW and Politico reporters are unable to access their workspaces inside the White House. CNN and MS NOW are also blocked from using their television equipment and camera locations on the grounds.

CNN was removed Monday from pooled coverage responsibilities that are shared by major news outlets. CNN was scheduled to have TV pool duty and travel with the president to New York on Monday.

Donald Trump Cited Negative Coverage

The lawsuit from the outlets is expected to rely heavily on the vague reasoning for revoking access that Trump gave on Friday, saying he didn’t like “negative stories.” “If they want to write them, that’s fine. I don’t have to let them into the people’s house,” the President also said.

The standoff is one of the administration’s most high-profile attacks on the press to date, with implications extending far beyond the three banned news outlets. Trump said last Friday, when he announced the ban, that he might add others to the list.

Legal And First Amendment Questions

Some first amendment and legal experts have already widely called the ban unconstitutional and condemned it as abrupt, discriminatory and harmful to the media’s ability to cover national issues.

At least one Trump administration official said in a TV interview Sunday that he believed a Supreme Court opinion from 1965 about the government refusing to validate passports for travel to Cuba would support Trump’s stance.

The emergency request is set to go before a federal judge in the DC District Court and could result in hearings and legal arguments from the administration as soon as this week. The case could become an important test of the relationship between presidential control over White House access and the press’s First Amendment protections.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Sep 21, 2026 04:29 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).