US Court: Trump’s Punishment of Associated Press Unconstitutional

Emmanuel Addeh in Abuja

The White House’s decision to punish The Associated Press by eliminating its access to President Donald Trump’s events, the Oval Office and Air Force One is unconstitutional, a US federal judge, has ruled.

The preliminary injunction issued against the White House by Judge Trevor McFadden, a first-term Trump appointee, is a major blow to the administration’s efforts to curtail the AP’s access to the president based on news coverage it dislikes.

And it’s a critical legal victory for one of the world’s biggest news outlets and wire services, whose reporting has been hamstrung by an administration with an axe to grind against it, a report by CNN stated.

“The government offers no other plausible explanation for its treatment of the AP. The Constitution forbids viewpoint discrimination, even in a nonpublic forum like the Oval Office,” McFadden, of the US District Court in Washington, DC, wrote in the 41-page ruling.

Earlier this year, Trump imposed a ban on the AP to punish the news organisation over its decision to continue using the phrase “Gulf of Mexico” after Trump renamed the body of water the “Gulf of America.”

“The AP seeks restored eligibility for admission to the press pool and limited-access press events, untainted by an impermissible viewpoint-based exclusion,” McFadden wrote. “That is all the Court orders today: For the Government to put the AP on an equal playing field as similarly situated outlets, despite the AP’s use of disfavored terminology, ” the judge added.

The court declared that the AP’s exclusion was contrary to the First Amendment, and enjoined the government from continuing down that ‘unlawful path’.

McFadden, however, did not immediately restore the AP’s access. He delayed his order for one week for the White House to appeal.

McFadden wrote that his ruling does not prevent the White House from limiting the AP’s access to certain presidential events and spaces for “permissible reasons.”

“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,” he wrote. “But it cannot be treated worse than its peer wire services either,” he added.

And he noted that while the White House in February took control of deciding who is part of the small rotating group of journalists and photographers known as the “press pool” that accompanies the president, that undertaking did not change its “constitutional obligation to refrain from viewpoint discrimination in selecting media outlets for participation.”

“We are gratified by the court’s decision,” Lauren Easton, a spokesperson for the AP, said in a statement. “Today’s ruling affirms the fundamental right of the press and public to speak freely without government retaliation.

“This is a freedom guaranteed for all Americans in the U.S. Constitution. We look forward to continuing to provide factual, nonpartisan and independent coverage of the White House for billions of people around the world,” Easton added.

Though the AP has changed how it refers to Mount McKinley, which Trump renamed from Denali, it said it would stick with the “Gulf of Mexico” because it is an international body of water and other countries do not recognise the new name.

As a global news outlet with customers all around the world, the AP said it will continue using the name “Gulf of Mexico” in its news coverage and influential stylebook while still acknowledging the new “Gulf of America” name.