Judge hears challenge to Trump's White House press ban

A federal judge in Washington is hearing arguments over whether President Donald Trump’s ban on CNN, MS NOW and Politico from White House grounds violates the Constitution, The Korea Times reported.

The lawsuit tests how far an administration may go in limiting White House access for news organizations whose coverage it disputes. The case drew support for restoring access from press freedom groups, the White House Correspondents' Association and 49 media outlets and industry groups.

U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly, appointed by Trump in 2017, is hearing the case after the three outlets filed a joint lawsuit Monday seeking immediate restoration of their White House access, according to The Korea Times. The ban was announced Friday, and the outlets’ journalists found the next day that their entry badges no longer worked.

The Trump administration said in a court filing that the move did not violate the First Amendment. "Access to the White House is a privilege — not a right," the Trump administration said in the filing, according to The Korea Times.

Administration lawyers said the outlets failed to meet the "standards of professionalism and decorum expected of those given access to the White House complex, including by trafficking in verifiable falsehoods about national security and other issues and publishing sensitive or classified information." The filing cited CNN reporting on alleged "‘top-secret' construction details related to the East Wing bunker," MS NOW reporting "on an alleged leak investigation" and Politico publishing "a document detailing funding for the White House ballroom containing intricate descriptions of how the Secret Service would invest in security improvements."

CNN, MS NOW and Politico alleged they were targeted because of the content of their reporting and called the ban a "blatant violation" of the First Amendment, The Korea Times reported. President Donald Trump told reporters at the United Nations, "I think we have a right to clean out fake news."

Katie Fallow, deputy litigation director at the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, said the case is unusual in modern press access disputes. "No president has taken this explicit of a step," Fallow said, according to The Korea Times. "There have been various presidents throughout history who have grumbled about the press or threatened to take more major steps, but really there was nothing at this level before Trump."

The five-network U.S. network press pool suspended coverage of Trump events until further notice, and The Associated Press joined organizations that refrained from publishing photos of the president Monday, according to The Korea Times.