By Susan Heavey and Helen Coster
WASHINGTON, Sept 24 (Reuters) - CNN, MS NOW and Politico journalists were barred from the White House on Thursday, just hours after a federal judge deemed US President Donald Trump's ban of the three news outlets likely unconstitutional and ordered their access immediately restored.
The news organizations responded by requesting an immediate hearing before US District Judge Tim Kelly, whose ruling overnight ordered a halt to the ban for 14 days in a major setback for Trump.
It is the latest in a series of confrontations over press freedom that have played out over the past week in the courtroom and White House grounds.
Kelly found that the revocation of the White House credentials of the journalists "likely violated their constitutional due process rights."
The judge, who Trump appointed in 2017 during his first presidential term, also raised doubts about the US Department of Justice's national security arguments for justifying the ban, noting that Trump himself had said the action was due to what the president alleged was false or negative coverage.
Just hours after the ruling, however, the outlets still had not gained access to the White House. Whether that was due to intentional defiance of Kelly's order or a matter of confusion within the White House security staff and systems remained unclear.
Representatives for the White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Politico reporter's credentials were confiscated, Politico said, while an MS NOW reporter said she was blocked from the White House. CNN said some of its staff members were denied entry onto the grounds.
Trump announced the ban last Friday on his social media platform, saying those news organizations "shouldn't be able to constantly write or report FICTION and LIES when they're covering the President of the United States." Trump framed their reporting as a threat to US national security.
The three outlets sued Trump and other members of his administration on Monday, saying the ban violated the US Constitution's First Amendment protections for free speech and a free press, as well as their due process rights. A coalition of press freedom groups and dozens of news organizations, including Reuters, later filed a legal brief supporting the three news outlets.
NATIONAL SECURITY CONCERNS
Kelly ordered the Trump administration to immediately return the outlets' press passes and stop enforcing the ban for two weeks. The judge rejected the administration's stated national security concerns.
"The record lacks factual support for defendants' contention that the revocation of plaintiffs' hard passes will in fact protect national security or that national security will be endangered if the court orders their passes reinstated while this litigation proceeds," Kelly wrote.
In a filing on Tuesday, the Justice Department accused the outlets of threatening national security with their coverage, citing stories about US missile stockpiles, construction of Trump's White House ballroom and turnout at the recent Republican midterm convention.
Theodore Boutrous, an attorney for the three outlets, welcomed the judge's decision in a statement, saying: "This is a strong ruling vindicating freedom of the press, due process and the rule of law. We greatly appreciate the court's swift action."
In the wake of Trump's ban, other members of the White House press pool of reporters who share resources to follow the US president's movements have refused to record or disseminate his events until access is restored for CNN, MS NOW and Politico, acting in solidarity with their fellow journalists.
This occurred as Trump spoke at the United Nations and hosts Chinese President Xi Jinping in Washington this week, including events at the White House on Thursday.
There were no TV pool cameras set up for Xi's arrival on the White House's South Lawn Thursday morning, and FOX News, MS NOW and CNN did not air the two leaders' arrival ceremony live.
TENSIONS WITH THE PRESS
Although other presidential administrations have battled with the press, Trump's campaign against the media has been unprecedented. Upending decades of tradition, his White House had denied basic access to many major news organizations, launched personal attacks on journalists and filed multiple lawsuits against news organizations.
Kelly's ruling came a day after Trump experienced another legal setback.
On Wednesday, an Iowa judge dismissed Trump's 2024 lawsuit against the Des Moines Register newspaper and pollster J. Ann Selzer. Trump sued the Register, its parent company Gannett and Selzer over a poll published ahead of the November 2024 US election that showed Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris leading him in Iowa. Trump accused the newspaper and its longtime pollster of fraudulently misleading readers.
In his ruling Wednesday, Iowa District Judge Scott Beattie said the poll was legally protected speech.
(Reporting by Susan Heavey in Washington and Helen Coster in New York; additional reporting by Katharine Jackson, Gram Slattery, Trevor Hunicutt and Jack Queen; Editing by Paul Thomasch, Doina Chiacu and Will Dunham)
