The plaintiffs claim they are losing access to important information provided by media outlets reporting on Mr. Trump.
Published October 26, 2026
A civilian group has sued President Donald Trump’s administration over its restrictions on media outlets reporting on the White House.
“All plaintiffs rely on the White House Correspondents’ Corps for independent reporting on the president and his administration, and all use that reporting in a variety of ways, including scholarship, education, journalism, and advocacy,” the lawsuit, filed Monday in federal court in New York, says.
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This lawsuit is the first to be brought not because a news organization has been banned, but by people who consume news and rely on it for their jobs.
Plaintiffs include human rights defenders, media observers, university history professors, high school teachers, legal journalists, and student journalists.
Each says they need unbiased and diverse media coverage from the White House to get their jobs done.
“I am deeply concerned that the Trump administration’s restrictions on White House reporters are cutting off access to important information,” Peter Schmidnowala, a high school social studies teacher in New York City, said in a statement.
“I joined this lawsuit because students deserve to know what’s going on in their government and to be heard by a free and independent press.”
President Trump is already facing several legal challenges to his practice of banning journalists from news organizations he dislikes from the White House.
Last month, he banned reporters from CNN, MS NOW and Politico from attending press conferences at the White House. A federal judge later ruled that the order was unconstitutional and violated the First Amendment, which protects freedom of the press, and ordered access restored. However, the Trump administration continues to resist this ruling.
President Trump last week denied reports that he planned to evict journalists from the White House briefing room and restore the pool, which has been in use since 1933, but said moving reporters from the briefing room was still under consideration.
“While we are considering moving the news organization and relocating it elsewhere, we intend to use that location as much-needed space,” Trump said in a social media post.
Kenneth Roth, a senior fellow at Yale University and former executive director of Human Rights Watch, said restricting access to the press is a common postmark in countries where leaders have become authoritarian.
“Across the world, we have seen that efforts by government leaders to punish independent journalists are a precursor to the rise of authoritarianism,” he said in a statement.
