MS NOW, CNN, Politico Allege Trump, White House Staffers Violated First Amendment in New Suit

MS NOW, CNN and Politico said they filed suit against the federal government following a decision by President Donald Trump to ban the three news organizations from newsgathering at the White House, the latest fracture in the relationship between the president and the national media.

“This morning, we notified the government that we are filing a lawsuit today to protect our First Amendment rights and defend the principle that the government does not decide what the press reports or publishes,” the three news organizations said in a statement. “Without notice or process, the White House revoked our journalists’ credentials because it objected to our reporting. Left unchallenged, this threatens press freedom and the public’s right to independent journalism free from government interference.”

The three news companies filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

MS NOW, CNN and Politico sought an order that would keep officials from taking any more action to ban its staffers from reporting at the White House and calling for an immediate restoration of the credentials required to access the grounds.

The Constitution “protects the liberty and property interests that news organizations and White House reporters have in their press credentials and the access those credentials afford them to cover the White House for the benefit of the public,” the companies alleged in a legal filing. “No official can deprive Plaintiffs of those interests on a whim — with no notice, no process, and no warning –as the President did here.”