Federal Judge Timothy Kelly has ordered the Trump administration to temporarily reinstate CNN, MS NOW and Politico’s access to the White House after the three news outlets were banned from the premises by President Donald Trump.
In a ruling issued early Thursday, Kelly found that the revocation of the reporters’ press badges was carried out without “constitutionally adequate due process.”
He also said the government’s arguments offered little support for its claim that the ban was based on national security concerns.
After the ban took effect, Trump and his lawyers said the outlets had their access revoked because their past reporting raised national security concerns.
“For one thing, nothing in the record that predates this suit suggests that the revocation of Plaintiffs’ hard passes was motivated by national security concerns,” Kelly wrote.
“Certainly, that is not what President Trump said when he announced that he was ‘banning’ Plaintiffs from the White House — instead, he focused on the alleged lack of truthfulness and negativity of Plaintiffs’ reporting.”
Kelly also questioned the administration’s subsequent explanations, noting that letters sent to the outlets referred to reporting that “threatened national security and/or spread falsehoods,” leaving open the possibility that the cited stories fell under the latter category rather than national security concerns.
On due process, Kelly noted that the administration did not notify the reporters of an opportunity to appeal until after their passes had been confiscated.
“The ‘general rule’ is that ‘individuals must receive notice and an opportunity to be heard before the Government deprives them’ of a constitutionally protected interest,” Kelly wrote.
Trump announced the ban in a social media post Friday, saying he was kicking the three news outlets out “as a result of their constant ‘reporting’ FAKE NEWS!” He added that “Other Fake News Media Outlets” would follow.
The three outlets subsequently sued the administration, asking the court to pause or block the ban entirely.
During a hearing on Wednesday, an attorney representing the outlets argued that the ban contradicted prior court rulings, violated due process and was issued because of Trump’s disdain for the journalists.
Justice Department attorney Michael Velchik, however, argued that CNN, MS NOW and Politico had endangered national security through their reporting and that Trump had the right to decide who could have access to the White House.
Ted Boutrous, representing the news outlets, said during the hearing that “the first mention of national security in this case” came days after the ban was announced and after the lawsuit had been filed.
Boutrous argued that it appeared the administration had adopted the national security argument after the fact to justify the ban.
He also said the news organisations were only provided with letters from the White House explaining the reasons for their exclusion days after the ban was announced and after they had filed their lawsuit.
Kelly acknowledged in his ruling that the outlets “did not receive notice and an opportunity to be heard” before their hard passes were revoked.
He said the record contained no relevant “formally articulated standards” that had been in place before the conduct cited by the administration as grounds for revoking the passes.
Kelly also addressed the administration’s allegation that one of the outlets had “exhibited behavior in violation of the standards of professionalism and decorum expected of those given access to the White House Complex.”
He described the standard reflected in letters sent to the outlets on September 22, 2026, as so vague that “it hardly does the trick.”
During Wednesday’s hearing, Boutrous also noted that only one of the CNN stories cited by the administration was written by a reporter with access to the White House and argued that the stories cited amounted to “just garden variety reporting.”
Kelly noted that the CNN report cited as a national security concern — a story about the planned rebuilding of a bunker under the East Wing — was published months before reporter Betsy Klein’s press pass was renewed this summer.
“None of Defendants’ arguments convince the Court that Plaintiffs are not likely to succeed on their due process claim,” Kelly wrote.
The judge also found that the plaintiffs had shown they were likely to suffer irreparable harm without a temporary restraining order and that reinstating the reporters’ press badges would serve the public interest.
“Plaintiffs—and the public—have an abiding interest in maintaining the status quo ante given the importance of the free press, which ‘stands as one of the great interpreters between the government and the people,’” the ruling said.
At the start of Wednesday’s hearing, Kelly noted that he had presided over a similar case in 2018, when Trump removed then-CNN correspondent Jim Acosta after a heated exchange between the reporter and the president.
Kelly said the court had to abide by past precedent and identified due process as the first issue in determining how to resolve the motion.
“There is a due process claim and a due process issue that seems to me the first stop in figuring out how to resolve the motion,” Kelly said.
In Thursday’s ruling, Kelly said the circumstances surrounding the latest case were not sufficiently “extraordinary” to justify departing from due process principles requiring that a deprivation of liberty “be preceded by notice and opportunity for hearing.”
The temporary restraining order issued by Kelly is in effect for 14 days.
Responding to the ruling, Boutrous told CNN: “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.”
CNN reached out to the Justice Department and White House for comment.
Boluwatife Enome
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