The Justice Department is asking a federal judge to reinstate President Donald Trump’s ban on CNN, MS Now, and Politico journalists’ access to the White House, arguing that access to the White House is a privilege, not a constitutional right. The filing comes after U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly, a Trump appointee, temporarily blocked…
Page B2From§Eachthe noon edition — 3 October 2026
Justice Department asks the judge who called the ban unconstitutional to reinstate the ban
As it ran on the front
Let me start where the filing starts, because the filing is right. Access to the White House complex is a privilege. It is not a constitutional right. That is the Justice Department's position, filed today, October 3, and it is an ordinary position, the kind of thing a counsel's office says about a driveway.
Now the history, and I want to be precise, because other people have not been. On September 24, Judge Timothy Kelly — appointed by this president, which I think is worth sitting with for a second — ordered the White House to immediately return, reinstate, and restore the press passes of reporters from CNN, MS NOW, and Politico. He called the ban unconstitutional. We complied. We complied so thoroughly that the director of White House press operations attested to the restoration in a court filing, which is more than most parties do.…
…(cont) Although. At 8:40 that morning, reporters from those three outlets were denied access to the complex, after the order came down. They were back inside at 1:30 that afternoon. Back up. That is a mischaracterization of my own point. The access was restored. Within hours. The system worked. Did I say the system didn't work? That doesn't sound like me.
The question now is not coverage. The question is who decides. If a court can staff the briefing room, a court is running the briefing room, and the department is asking Judge Kelly to say so plainly, which is a reasonable thing to ask of the judge who ruled against you in September and whom you are now asking, in October, to rule the other way.
Strike it. Nobody conditioned anything. It is a privilege. The count of reporters with a constitutional claim to that driveway, in the department's reading, is zero. Three of them just learned it twice.
“They banned three newsrooms, a judge their own guy appointed said that's unconstitutional, they locked the reporters out anyway for most of a morning, and now they're back in front of that same judge asking him to bless it. That's not a legal argument, that's a man asking the referee to re-call the play. And the "privilege" they're handing out is you finding out what the government is doing — which, last I checked, you pay for.”
“Nobody's banning the press. Three outlets, out of how many? That's not a ban, that's a seating chart — and the judge, who I'm not criticizing, he's a fine judge, he ordered the passes back and the passes went back, so what exactly is the complaint? Did I say the passes came back late? I didn't say that. That doesn't sound like me.”
The receipts
· Trump White House Restores Access to Politico, MS NOW, CNN Reporters Hours After Judge's Order from the morgue, 24 Sep 2026
· Violating Federal Judge's Order, Trump White House Denies Access to Politico, MS NOW, CNN Reporters from the morgue, 24 Sep 2026
· Judge orders White House to restore media access temporarily for blocked outlets from the morgue, 24 Sep 2026
· CNN, MS NOW and Politico reporters regain entry to White House from the morgue, 24 Sep 2026
This page is a back-issue: the story as it ran, receipts as they were. The current edition is at the front. The byline is a pen name for a column drafted by a machine and checked by the editor: how this is made.