Associated Press challenges ruling limiting access to White House

By Steve Stroth

 

The Associated Press is challenging a ruling that allowed President Donald Trump to exclude the news agency from “restricted” spaces like the Oval Office and Air Force One.

 

In a filing Tuesday, the Associated Press asked that all the judges on the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit review a 2-1 decision by a smaller panel of the court. On Friday, the panel, which included two judges appointed by Trump, halted a lower-court’s order that restored the wire service’s ability to participate in a rotating pool of reporters who cover the president’s daily movements. 

 

 

The news agency sued the Trump administration in February when the White House press office started limiting the access of AP reporters and photographers. The wire service had refused to update its style guide to rename the “Gulf of Mexico” the “Gulf of America” following a Trump executive order.  

 

Patrick Maks, a spokesman for the AP, said the news wire is seeking a rehearing by the full appellate court because the panel’s ruling “allows the White House to discriminate and retaliate over words it does not like, a violation of the First Amendment.”

 

The White House didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. 

 

The case is Associated Press v. Budowich, 25-5109, DC Circuit Court of Appeals (Washington)