‘Trump Judge’ Timothy J. Kelly found that Trump’s decision to bar more than 70 journalists from CNN, MS NOW and Politico violated their fundamental free speech in two separate ways as well as their due process rights. Both rights are enshrined in the Bill of Rights to the U.S. Constitution.
Judge Kelly used Trump’s own words about the news organizations against him to make his ruling.
“President Trump’s own comments suggest that he intended the revocation of Plaintiffs’ hard passes to alter their reporting on him, bolstering the case that his action here is sufficient to deter a reporter of ordinary firmness from reporting in the same way she had before,” Kelly wrote in the opinion.
He later continued, “[T]he ban threatens to cut off all Plaintiffs’ access to the White House press area — a space open to many of their competitors — thereby restricting their ability to observe happenings there firsthand, immediately report on those activities, and try to engage with government officials.”
The Department of Justice announced on Wednesday, they plan to appeal the ruling.