Posted on 09/24/2026 6:26:18 AM PDT by V_TWIN
President Donald Trump's ban on CNN, MS NOW and Politico suffered a setback Thursday after a federal judge ordered the administration to restore White House access to the outlets.
U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly issued a temporary restraining order Thursday blocking the ban and ordering White House officials to "immediately return, reinstate, and restore" the outlets' hard-pass press credentials while their legal battle continues. The order will be in effect for 14 days.
Kelly wrote that the outlets had shown they were likely to succeed on their claim that their White House "hard passes were revoked without constitutionally adequate due process."
"This is a high bar, but Plaintiffs have met it," Kelly wrote of the standard for obtaining a temporary restraining order.
Kelly also rejected, at least for now, the administration's national security justification, writing that "the record lacks factual support" for the contention that revoking the passes protected national security or that restoring them would endanger it.
Trump announced the ban last week, writing on social media that the three outlets "shouldn't be able to constantly write or report FICTION and LIES."
Lawyers for the Justice Department argued that White House press access is a privilege, not a right, and defended the president's authority to determine who receives access.
Following Trump's ban, White House television pool members FOX News Media, ABC News, CBS News, CNN and NBC News announced Monday that they had agreed to suspend their pooled coverage of the president.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Dear FRiends,
We need your continuing support to keep FR funded. Your donations are our sole source of funding. No sugar daddies, no advertisers, no paid memberships, no commercial sales, no gimmicks, no tax subsidies. No spam, no pop-ups, no ad trackers.
If you enjoy using FR and agree it's a worthwhile endeavor, please consider making a contribution today:
Click here: to donate by Credit Card
Or here: to donate by PayPal
Or by mail to: Free Republic, LLC - PO Box 9771 - Fresno, CA 93794
Thank you very much and God bless you,
Jim
These judges need to be reined in.
“But the weakest branch - the judiciary - is flexing until they get slapped down.”
I respectfully disagree. Federal judges are completely outside of the electoral process so they don’t have to worry about how decisions might affect their chances of reelection. Removal of federal judges almost never occurs, so that’s not much of a concern either. The judicial branch can tell the other two branches what they can and cannot do, and they can do so using twisted logic inventing things that were never in the constitution to begin with. You are correct that they are flexing their muscles because they realize they can coordinate with like-minded politicians to slow or completely block a political agenda they don’t like. The old saying that justice delayed is justice denied is even more true in the political arena. These delaying tactics have proven very effective.
We are hoping to have this new glitch fixed...in 14 days. No information on what is interfering with the update, but a far right wing, red hat wearing, white male was seen scurrying from nearby wires while waving a giant pair of scissors!
Agreed.
I did not know they have a vested property right to a press pass? How can that be?
Make the enemedia bums take a 12-hour class, pay hundreds of dollars, get an extensive criminal background check AND a sheriff’s written permission, THEN a 30 day waiting period before they can engage in first amendment activity at The White House.
Why not? That’s what lawful gun owners must endure.
There is a specific process that needs to be followed to remove access for any press members.
Would be great to see trump tell the tin horn federal judge to shove his decision where the sun doesn’t shine.
“How in the world does ANY judge have ANY jurisdiction in this matter???”
They don’t, but they will inject themselves. I think the battle plan for Trump is to get the courts to state that hard press credentials and access to the White House is a Constitutionally protected right.
You’ll recall Biden and Obama revoking the press credentials of Newsmax, James Rosen, (arrested his parents too), and others that did not meet the Obama/Biden standards?
If the courts, including SCOTUS, rule the way we all think they will, the hard press credentials can be given to Gateway Pundit, James O’Keefe, Nick Shirley and others, and future Democrat presidents will have to accept them under legal precedent.
But who issues ‘hard press credentials’?
Exactly.
Agreed.
Pronto.
Good idea.
Not pronto. Yesterday.
When did we decide to make Dipstick Court Feral “judgies” into GODS? These bass turds gotta go. They weren’t ever elected and they are really screwing the American people. We have the most corrupt judiciary on the planet. All old homosexuals who never did anything useful with their loser lives.
If the President can’t even determine his own guest list to visit the White House, what authority does he have over any of the Executive Branch?
Geez. Another RAT Timmy. He’s probably working on becoming Sandy Cortez’s VP pick.
There is apparently no matter too small to be subject to the judiciary's leftist tutelary despotism when Trump is in office.
This has risen to a genuine separation of powers issue at this point.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.