President Donald Trump speaks with reporters in the Oval Office at the White House, Tuesday, Feb. 11, 2025, in Washington, D.C. (Photo/Alex Brandon).
A federal judge in Washington, D.C., on Monday rejected a request from The Associated Press to restore the news organization’s access to certain presidential events following claims it was being unconstitutionally punished for refusing to refer to the Gulf of Mexico as the “Gulf of America.”
U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden, a Trump appointee, declined to grant a temporary restraining order that would have prevented the administration from keeping the AP out of certain presidential events, particularly those taking place in the Oval Office, on Air Force One, or at Trump’s home in Mar-a-Lago, according to a report from CNN.
McFadden reportedly denied the request for the “extraordinary relief” of a TRO because the AP failed to show it would suffer “irreparable harm” without it, as the organization could still “get access to the same information” through pool notes that are provided to all members of the White House Correspondents Association. The lack of harm was further evinced by the AP waiting more than a week to file its lawsuit, McFadden reportedly said.
While denying the TRO request, McFadden also indicated that he believed the administration would have a difficult time defending its decision when it came time to argue on the merits. He reportedly warned that case law in Washington, D.C. was “uniformly unhelpful” for cases involving journalistic bans and said the ban was a clear example of unconstitutional content-based discrimination.
“It might be appropriate for the White House… to consider if what they’re doing is really appropriate, given the case law,” he warned, according to journalist Jordan Fischer.
In the filed complaint, the AP alleged that the administration unlawfully ordered it to “use certain words” in its coverage “or else face an indefinite denial of access.”
