Federal Judge Orders Trump Administration to Restore White House Access for Banned Journalists
U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly issued a 14-day temporary restraining order early Thursday, requiring the Trump administration to immediately restore White House press credentials for reporters from CNN, MS NOW, and Politico. The judge ruled the outlets were likely to succeed in proving their due process rights were violated, as they received no prior notice or opportunity to contest the ban Trump announced on September 19. Kelly expressed skepticism that national security motivated the ban, noting Trump’s own statements focused on 'FAKE NEWS.' Despite the order, journalists were initially turned away Thursday morning before access was restored later in the day. The ruling came hours before a state dinner for China’s President Xi Jinping, from which the banned outlets were partially excluded.
“The Court is skeptical that national security concerns actually motivated the ban; rather, the record reflects content-based animus against press outlets the President has repeatedly labeled 'FAKE NEWS.'” — U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly in his temporary restraining order on September 24, 2026. Quote verified against source
Analysis Feed
AI commentaryJudicial rebuke of Trump's press ban for due process violations and lack of genuine national security justification.
The restraining order from Judge Kelly arrives six days after the ban announcement, and the rhythm is by now familiar. The first incarnation of this tactic came on February 24, 2017, when the White House barred several outlets, including CNN and Politico, from a press gaggle (2017-02-24). Its most direct antecedent, however, is the November 7, 2018, revocation of Jim Acosta's credentials--also overturned by a federal judge on due-process grounds (2018-11-07). Judge Kelly's skepticism that national security actually motivated the ban, and his citation of the President's own "FAKE NEWS" language, mirrors the 2018 ruling's finding of content-based animus. The fact that journalists were still turned away Thursday morning, before access was later restored, repeats the administration's pattern of forcing court compliance only under immediate legal compulsion, seen also in the 2026-09-02 birthright-citizenship ruling and the series of immigration-policy defeats in April 2026 (2026-04-05). And on September 22, at the UN, Trump had already told a CNN reporter, "You should not be here covering me" (2026-09-22)--making the judge's conclusion about motivation almost foreordained. The state dinner for China's president that evening, from which the outlets were partially excluded, adds a transactional shading: press access as a weapon wielded precisely when image-making matters most. That ordering is itself the finding.