A federal appeals court panel appeared skeptical at a hearing Thursday of the Trump administration’s request that it immediately lift a lower court’s order restoring the Associated Press to the White House press pool.
A three-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals seemed wary of the administration’s arguments that they must immediately intervene in the case, saying there wasn’t a risk of some imminent harm, especially since the Associated Press already had a longstanding, permanent slot in the small group of reporters who get access to the Oval Office, Air Force One and other White House spaces.
“No doubt it will stick in the White House’s craw, but it is the same arrangement that people have been living under,” said Judge Gregory Katsas, a Trump appointee.
A lower court judge last week ordered the White House to restore the Associated Press’ access after Trump banned the news organization for refusing to adopt his renaming of the Gulf of Mexico as the “Gulf of America.” The administration immediately appealed that order, arguing that Air Force One, the Oval Office and other spaces in the White House are akin to personal and private spaces where public access can be restricted. But the appeals court panel wasn’t receptive to the administration’s emergency plea. The panel did not issue a ruling Thursday and did not indicate when it might do so.
Still, two members of the panel appeared sympathetic to some of the Trump administration’s arguments. Katsas and Judge Neomi Rao, another Trump appointee, affirmed the president’s broad powers to establish or abolish a press pool altogether or to reserve interviews and privileged access for favored outlets and reporters.
The Associated Press didn’t dispute the president’s right to revoke access for all outlets. The wire service argued instead that the issue is the interference with its existing rights and access, and that Trump apparently banned the outlet as retaliation.
Many cases against the Trump administration “involve injunctions that direct how the president performs official duties,” Katsas said. “We don’t have that here.”
He added that the argument that the president can simply abolish the press pool seems stronger than an argument that the injunction ordering restoration of AP’s access will “imperil the presidency.”
The Trump administration has changed its press pool rules multiple times since the spat with the AP began.
After the AP sued, the White House ended the White House Correspondents’ Association’s historical role in selecting the press pool members, saying it would make those assignments itself.
U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden, a Trump appointee, ruled last week that Trump’s actions were “brazen” retaliation against the AP for its editorial choices, and likely violate the First Amendment.
Then, on Tuesday night, administration officials said that the AP and other wire services, including Reuters and Bloomberg, would no longer share a rotating slot in the pool.
It’s unclear whether the latest move complies with McFadden’s order, which effectively required the administration to treat the AP the same as other news outlets.
