Home · Politics · Sep 29 archive
Is Press Access a Constitutional Right?
Confirmed
In Short: A federal judge ordered the White House to immediately restore press credentials to journalists from CNN, MS NOW, and Politico, ruling that the three news organizations were likely denied their constitutional right to due process.
The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Washington, D.C., argued that the ban violated the First Amendment and due process rights of the news organizations.
Reporters from the organizations were subsequently denied access to the grounds and their credentials were revoked after President Trump announced restrictions on Saturday.
The outlets are seeking a temporary restraining order and injunction to prohibit the ban from being enforced and to require that their access be restored.
In the lawsuit, the news outlets are asking a federal judge to immediately restore their access, which was denied on Saturday, a day after Trump announced he would restrict them from entry to the White House grounds.
The judge, however, said the administration offered 'little to back up their asserted national security interest to justify revocation of plaintiffs’ hard passes,' and issued a temporary restraining order, allowing the outlets to access the White House.
The constitutional amendment, which had the stated purpose of 'restoring rule-of-law democracy,' passed with 139 votes for and six against in the 199-member Hungarian Parliament.
The judge ruled that 'the protection afforded newsgathering under the First Amendment guarantee of freedom of the press requires that this access not be denied arbitrarily or for less than compelling reasons.
The public at large suffers for however long the unconstitutional ban restricts access to current and complete information about their government.
Scripps Company, which is our parent company, signed on to a filing alongside the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, the White House Correspondents’ Association and 48 other media organizations to oppose the Trump administration’s ban on these three outlets.
What this adds
The ruling highlights the ongoing tension between executive actions and constitutional protections for press access.
What's confirmed
- CNN, MS NOW and Politico are suing President Trump jointly for violating their constitutional rights after his administration cut off their journalists' access to the White House.
- WASHINGTON — A federal judge early Thursday ordered the White House to immediately restore press credentials to journalists from CNN, MS NOW and Politico, ruling that the three news organizations were likely denied their constitutional right to due process.
What's still developing
- After winning in a landslide election in April, current Prime Minister Péter Magyar and his pro-European, center-right Tisza party hold a two-thirds majority in Parliament, allowing them to make constitutional changes and roll back many of the policies Orbán implemented during his 16 years in power.
- BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — Hungary’s Parliament voted Monday to pass a constitutional amendment to remove President Tamás Sulyok from office and make some political reforms aimed at dismantling the political system of autocratic former Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.
- Tisza lawmakers held a standing ovation after the vote, while lawmakers from Orbán’s far-right Fidesz party boycotted the parliamentary session.
- What are these teachers allowed to have in their classroom, and why does this feel like every case we are doing right now?
- All right, David, let's start with some news that happened on September 11th.
- Then, the two review two law articles: Andy Smarick of the Manhattan Institute’s elegantly simple piece on unenumerated rights, and University of Virginia law professor Caleb Nelson’s amazing yet horrifying publication on the unitary executive.
- Indian constitutional jurisprudence has steadily expanded it to encompass the right to education, the right to livelihood, and implicit within both- the right to a fair, uncorrupted opportunity to compete for one's future.
- It is a single examination day that determines access to a medical career, and by extension, to social mobility itself.
- Framed this way, the judiciary's intervention in this case isn't just about punishing 13 accused individuals, it's about vindicating the constitutional liberty of the millions who didn't cheat.
- The constitutional amendment is almost certain to pass given the two-thirds parliamentary majority Magyar’s Tisza party wields in parliament.
- "However, change is happening right across these islands and we must be ready for constitutional change when it comes," she said.
- John Swinney, Rhun ap Iorwerth, Mary Lou McDonald and Michelle O'Neill met in Cardiff Bay on Monday The first ministers of Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland have declared that "Westminster's time is coming to an end", and that the UK government should "prepare" for constitutional change.