Okay, And?: Federal Judge Temporarily Blocks Trump Media Ban

Source: Andrew Harnik / GettyIn the early hours of Thursday morning (Sept. 24), a federal judge ruled that President Donald Trump must restore press access to media outlets he attempted to ban from the White House last week. It comes after the networks sued the administration, citing their First Amendment rights. The ruling was made by District Court Judge Timothy Kelly. Kelly’s decision granted a temporary 14-day stay on the ban in response to a lawsuit filed against Trump by media networks CNN, Politico, and MSNOW. The networks were banned from gaining access to the White House last Friday (Sept. 18), with reporters having their credentials taken away by Trump administration staffers. The judge ordered the White House “immediately return, reinstate, and restore” those credentials to the reporters.Trump banned the networks as punishment for what he deemed was negative coverage of his administration. Lawyers from the Department of Justice (DOJ) told the court that they sent letters to the aggrieved outlets detailing their reasons for the ban last Friday, but the networks testified that they didn’t receive those letters until Tuesday. DOJ lawyers argued that the ban was in the inter...