‘A Full Win’: Federal Judge Orders White House to Reinstate Associated Press Over ‘Gulf of America’ Dispute

AP Photo/Alex Brandon

The Associated Press scored a major victory in its battle with the Trump administration on Tuesday, when a federal judge granted an injunction against the White House’s ban on access to the Oval Office and other official press events.

President Donald Trump’s ongoing dispute with the AP began with his first-day flurry of executive orders, including one that purported to rename the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America and to change the name of North America’s highest peak from Denali back to Mount McKinley, but the AP was only on board for the latter, citing the scope of U.S. presidential authority and its status as an international news organization as the rationale behind how it would identify both places.

The Trump administration has continued to bar AP reporters from the Oval Office, Air Force One, and other official White House events. In February, the AP filed a lawsuit against White House Deputy Chief of Staff Taylor Budowich, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, and White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles.

Political senior legal affairs reporter Kyle Cheney tweeted the news of the injunction, calling it a “full win for the AP.”

The 41-page order by U.S. District Court Judge Trevor McFadden, appointed to the federal bench in 2017 by Trump, grants the injunction sought by the AP, finding that the government could have many valid reasons to restrict access to White House events, but singling out one media outlet based on “an impermissible viewpoint-based exclusion” was barred by the First Amendment.

McFadden’s ruling ordered the White House “to put the AP on an equal playing field as similarly situated outlets, despite the AP’s use of disfavored terminology,” and added language clarifying that the AP was not entitled to any special treatment, just not worse treatment:

The Court does not order the Government to grant the AP permanent access to the Oval Office, the East Room, or any other media event. It does not bestow special treatment upon the AP. Indeed, the AP is not necessarily entitled to the “first in line every time” permanent press pool access it enjoyed under the WHCA. But it cannot be treated worse than its peer wire services either. The Court merely declares that the AP’s exclusion has been contrary to the First Amendment, and it enjoins the Government from continuing down that unlawful path.

The injunction stated that the government was required to “immediately rescind the denial of the AP’s access to the Oval Office, Air Force One, and other limited spaces based on the AP’s viewpoint when such spaces are made open to other members of the White House press pool,” and “immediately rescind their viewpoint-based denial of the AP’s access to events open to all credentialed White House journalists.” The terms of the injunction added that it was to “remain in effect until further order of this Court.”