The Associated Press emphasized that the White House ban on its access to presidential events extends beyond pool opportunities in limited spaces but to larger events open to all credentialed journalists.
In its latest court filing, the news organization’s legal team wrote that the “White House has gone so far as to ban an AP photographer from covering the arrival of Air Force One at Palm Beach International
Airport, even though the event was open to other credentialed media, and despite there being no space constraints whatsoever on the airport tarmac.”
Read the AP’s latest filing on the Trump ban.
The AP sued Trump administration officials last month after its reporters and later photographers were banned from the press pool, meaning that they no longer had access to Oval Office events, as well as other presidential appearances in and out of the White House. Donald Trump and others on his team made clear that the AP was being frozen out because it failed to change the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America.
Last week, U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden declined to issue a temporary restraining order to immediately restore the AP’s access, but he set an expedited schedule for considering whether to issue an injunction against the administration. The next hearing is scheduled for March 20.
In their filing, the AP’s legal team pointed out that the White House’s rationale was viewpoint discrimination.
“The White House has ordered The Associated Press to use certain words in its coverage or else face retaliation with an indefinite denial of access,” the AP said. “The press and all people in the United States have the right to choose their own words and not suffer retaliation at the hands of their government. The Constitution does not allow the government to control speech. Allowing government control to stand is a threat to every American’s freedom.”
The latest brief also cited the White House decision last week to take control of who is a member of the press pool from the White House Correspondents’ Association. The pool is the smaller group of White House journalists who cover presidential events that typically have limited capacity, such as the recent Oval Office meeting between Trump and Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky. For decades, the WHCA has handled logistics and scheduling, ensuring that the makeup of the pool is free of government favoritism or retaliation.
The AP’s legal team wrote, “After making several unsuccessful efforts to persuade Defendants that their
conduct is contrary to well-established law, the AP brought this action to vindicate its constitutional rights, restore its access to presidential events, and ensure that the press remains free to report on the administration without fear of selective, arbitrary denials of access – denials that continue as to the newly constituted press pool and that have expanded to even more large spaces as well. The White House responded by ‘doubling down’ on its denial of access and by discarding the White House press pool system that has worked for decades to keep the public informed about the President.”
