AP Sues Trump After Being Blocked From WH Events: We ‘Have the Right… Not To Be Retaliated Against’
The Associated Press sued the Trump administration on Friday after being blocked from covering White House events over its refusal to refer to the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America.
The wire service has declined to update its style guide to cater to an executive order from President Donald Trump that renamed the body of water.
Earlier this month, AP reporters were blocked from a pair of Oval Office briefings. The White House later said the AP would be barred from traveling with other outlets aboard Air Force One.
“We reserve the right to decide who gets to go into the Oval Office,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said. “If we feel there are lies being pushed by outlets in this room, we are going to hold those lies accountable. And it is a fact that the body of water off the coast of Louisiana is called the Gulf of America, and I’m not sure why news outlets don’t want to call it that but that is what it is.”
On Friday, Leavitt was named in a suit filed by the AP in the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. The suit argued the AP’s First Amendment rights were being violated:
The Associated Press sued three Trump administration officials Friday over access to presidential events, citing freedom of speech in asking a federal judge to stop the 10-day blocking of its journalists.
[…]
The AP says its case is about an unconstitutional effort by the White House to control speech — in this case refusing to change its style from the Gulf of Mexico to the “Gulf of America,” as President Donald Trump did last month with an executive order.
The suit argued, “The press and all people in the United States have the right to choose their own words and not be retaliated against by the government.”
The filing further stated, “This targeted attack on the AP’s editorial independence and ability to gather and report the news strikes at the very core of the First Amendment. This court should remedy it immediately.”
