Judge sides with The New York Times in challenging a Pentagon policy limiting reporters’ access

WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge agreed Friday to block the Trump administration from implementing a policy limiting news reporters’ access to the Pentagon, agreeing with The New York Times that key parts of the new rules are illegal.

U.S. District Judge Paul Friedman in Washington, D.C., sided with the newspaper and ruled that a Pentagon policy illegally restricted the press credentials of journalists exiting the building rather than approving the new rules.

He watches: Journalists leave the Pentagon rather than agree to new reporting rules

The Times filed a lawsuit against the Pentagon and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth in December, alleging that the accreditation policy violated journalists’ constitutional rights to free expression and due process.

The Pentagon’s current press staff consists mostly of conservative media outlets that have approved of the policy. Reporters for media outlets that refused to approve the new rules, including the Associated Press, continued to report on the military.

Friedman, nominated by Democratic President Bill Clinton, said the policy “failed to provide fair notice of routine and lawful journalistic practices that would result in the denial, suspension or revocation” of Pentagon press credentials. It was ruled that it violated First and Fifth Amendment rights to free speech and due process.

“Those who drafted the First Amendment believed that the security of the nation required a free press and an informed people and that this security was imperiled by government suppression of political speech. This principle has kept the nation safe for nearly 250 years. It must not be abandoned now,” the judge wrote.

The Times’s lawyer, Theodore Boutros, said in a statement that the court’s ruling “is a strong rejection of the Pentagon’s efforts to obstruct freedom of the press and the transmission of vital information to the American people during a period of war.”

The Pentagon did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the ruling.

She said that this policy imposes “logical” rules that protect the army from disclosing information related to national security.

“The goal of this operation is to prevent those who pose a security risk from gaining widespread access to U.S. military headquarters,” government lawyers wrote.

Lawyers for the Times claim the policy is intended to silence unfavorable press coverage of President Donald Trump’s administration.

“The First Amendment categorically prohibits the government from granting itself the absolute power to restrict free speech because the mere existence of such arbitrary power can lead to self-censorship,” they wrote.

The judge said he recognized that “national security must be protected, the security of our forces must be protected, and war plans must be protected.”

“But especially in light of the country’s recent incursion into Venezuela and its ongoing war with Iran, it is more important than ever that the public has access to information from diverse perspectives about what its government is doing — so that the public can support the government’s policies, if it wants to support them; protest, if it wants to protest; and make a decision based on full, complete, and open information for whom to vote in the next election,” Friedman wrote.

Friedman said “indisputable evidence” shows the policy is designed to weed out “undesirable journalists” and replace them with those “who are willing and willing to serve” the government, a clear example of unlawful viewpoint discrimination.

“In short, the policy on its face makes any newsgathering and reporting not blessed by the Department a potential basis for denial, suspension, or revocation of a journalist’s (credentials),” he wrote. “It does not provide a way for journalists to know how they can do their work without losing their credentials.”

The Pentagon had asked the judge to suspend his ruling for a week in order to appeal. Friedman refused.

The judge ordered the Pentagon to return the press credentials of seven Times journalists. But he said his decision to cancel the terms of the contested policy applied to “all regulated parties.” Friedman gave the Pentagon a week to submit a written report on its compliance with the order.

Associated Press writer Konstantin Torobin contributed to this report.