CNN, MS Now and Politico will continue to have access to the White House after a judge says Trump’s ban is likely illegal.
Published October 14, 2026
A federal judge has expanded President Donald Trump’s access to several news organizations he had sought to ban from the White House.
U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly said Trump likely violated a law that prohibits reporters from CNN, MS Now and Politico from attending White House briefings.
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The decision, announced late Tuesday, expands on an emergency order issued by Kelly on Sept. 24 that temporarily restored access to the organization. The newspaper said Trump likely discriminated against the news organization based on its views, a violation of the First Amendment.
She wrote that Trump’s “announcement of the ban and subsequent statements explaining the reason for it lead to this simple and obvious conclusion: President Trump likely removed Plaintiffs from the White House because he believes their reporting is generally inaccurate and biased against him.”
In announcing the ban, President Trump said that organizations “must not consistently write or report fiction or lies when covering the President of the United States.”
The Justice Department later announced that it had revoked the reporters’ White House passes on national security grounds.
Mr. Kelly rejected this argument in his judgment.
“First, there is no evidence in the record that President Trump made the decision to revoke Plaintiffs’ hard passes on national security grounds in the first place, nor has he ever directly stated that national security was the reason for his decision,” he wrote.
The order will remain in effect until Kelly, who was appointed by President Trump during his first term, makes a final decision on the case or until an appeals court intervenes.
Mr. Trump has long been critical of traditional U.S. media and has previously sought to restrict access to certain organizations.
He has also filed a series of lawsuits against media companies, while rhetorically attacking individual reporters in person and on social media.
At an Oct. 8 hearing, Theodore Boutras, a lawyer for the three banned groups, said Trump was trying to “force better coverage.”
The Freedom of the Press Foundation was among the groups supporting the latest court ruling.
“But this fight is far from over,” senior advocacy adviser Caitlin Bogus said in a statement.
“There is good reason to expect the administration to appeal Mr. Kelly’s latest order and continue to block CNN and Politico from participating in mass coverage of the president,” she said. “President Trump must not be allowed to trample on fundamental First Amendment protections by hand-picking his press corps or turning pool assignments into rewards for favorable coverage.”
