President Donald Trump has been ordered to immediately restore the press credentials of the three outlets he banned in a dramatic early-morning ruling.
Trump, 80, banned CNN, MS NOW and Politico from the White House last Friday, leaving rival networks refusing to cover his activities in solidarity.
The outlets took legal action against Trump, claiming his ban violated the First Amendment. At approximately 1 a.m. on Thursday morning, Trump-appointed U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly granted a 14-day temporary restraining order.
He found that the news outlets were likely to succeed in their claim that their media passes, or “hard passes,” were revoked without constitutionally adequate due process.
Kelly ordered the passes returned immediately and rejected the Trump administration’s claim that the ban was needed for national security.
“The record lacks factual support for defendants’ contention that the revocation of plaintiffs’ hard passes will in fact protect national security or that national security will be endangered if the court orders their passes reinstated while this litigation proceeds,” Kelly said.
He added that Trump himself stated the ban was due to “alleged lack of truthfulness and negativity” of the outlets’ reporting.
This is a breaking news story and will be updated.
