The Department of Justice says that the White House had an absolute right to take away CNN reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials after Acosta’s heated exchange with the president earlier this month. You can read the DoJ’s argument here.
In a filing on November 14, the Justice Department not only defended the White House’s right to take away Acosta’s credentials — it said the White House can take away any reporter’s credentials. According to the DoJ filing, access to the White House is not a first amendment right; it’s a privilege. And that privilege can be revoked at any time, without explanation. The filing says,
“The President and White House possess the same broad discretion to regulate access to the White House for journalists (and other members of the public) that they possess to select which journalists receive interviews, or which journalists they acknowledge at press
conferences…No journalist has the first amendment right to enter the White House and the President need not survive First Amendment scrutiny whenever he exercises his discretion to deny an individual journalist one of the many hundreds of passes granting on-demand access to the White House complex.”
On the specific case of CNN’s reporter, Jim Acosta, the DoJ says that “it is far from clear that Mr. Acosta or CNN has a constitutionally protected liberty interest in Mr. Acosta’s access to the White House complex.” The filing argues that even with Acosta barred from the White House grounds, CNN still has 50 reporters with White House press passes and that CNN’s situation is “far from dire.”
You can read the full filing here.
CNN Is Suing the White House & the First Hearing Is Scheduled for This Afternoon
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CNN filed a lawsuit against the White House after Acosta was barred from entering White House grounds. The network argued that banning Acosta from the White House was a violation of his First Amendment rights (and the first amendment rights of CNN itself). CNN is suing six people by name in this lawsuit: President Trump; White House Chief of Staff John Kelly; Deputy Chief of Staff William Shine; White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders; Director of the Secret Service Randolph Alles; and Secret Service Agent John Doe.
The first hearing in the case is scheduled for the afternoon of Wednesday, November 14. Judge Timothy Kelly will preside. Judge Kelly joined the district court in 2017 after being appointed by President Trump.
On Tuesday, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders dismissed the CNN lawsuit as “grandstanding” and said that CNN didn’t have any grounds for complaint. In a statement, Sanders wrote,
“We have been advised that CNN has filed a complaint challenging the suspension of Jim Acosta’s hard pass. This is just more grandstanding from CNN, and we will vigorously defend against the lawsuit.” She added that Acosta’s press pass was revoked because of his “inappropriate behavior,” and said, “The White House cannot run an orderly and fair press conference when a reporter acts this way, which is neither appropriate nor professional. The First Amendment is not served when a single reporter, of more than 150 present, attempts to monopolize the floor. If there is no check on this type of behavior, it impedes the ability of the President, the White House staff, and members of the media to conduct business.”
Fox News Has Joined the List of News Organizations Supporting CNN’s Lawsuit Against Trump
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News organizations have vowed to support CNN and Jim Acosta in their lawsuit against CNN. In a statement issued on Wednesday, the Associated Press, Fox News, the New York Times, and a range of other media said they would file legal briefs in support of CNN and Acosta. The statement reads, in part,
“It is imperative that independent journalists have access to the President and his activities, and that individual journalists are not banned for arbitrary reasons. Our news organizations support the fundamental right to question this President, or any President.”