A judge in the United States District Court, Trevor McFadden, ruled on Tuesday, April 8, that the Trump administration cannot exclude the Associated Press (AP) from White House limited media events solely because it refused to use the term “Gulf of America” instead of “Gulf of Mexico”.
The issue arose when the AP refused to comply with Trump’s executive order to rename “Gulf of Mexico” to “Gulf of America”. As a result, on February 11 this year, it was removed from the “White House Press Pool” composed of 13 media outlets, losing the opportunity to enter the Oval Office and accompany Air Force One for coverage.
McFadden ruled that this action violated the AP’s freedom of speech rights under the First Amendment.
The “White House Press Pool”, coordinated by the White House Correspondents Association (WHCA), consisted of 13 major media outlets that took turns sending reporters to cover restricted presidential events and shared reports. On February 25, the White House announced the revocation of this privilege and handed over control to the President’s news team to decide which media could participate.
In the lawsuit, the Associated Press argued that it is an international media outlet and the term “Gulf of Mexico” is widely used globally. It also accused the White House of deliberately restricting its participation in official events where other media had free access, significantly impacting the quality of its news reporting and photography and leading to loss of readership and revenue.
McFadden determined that the AP was “excluded from significant events far more frequently than other media outlets” and occasional participation by its overseas correspondents or photographers did not make up for the losses.
However, the court did not require the White House to grant the AP “permanent access to the Oval Office, East Room, or any other location”, but only ruled that the White House must restore the AP’s seat in the press pool and treat this media outlet fairly.
In his judgment, McFadden stated, “Indeed, the AP does not have a right to ‘always be first’ in the press pool. But under the First Amendment, when the government opens the door to certain reporters—be it the Oval Office, East Room, or another location—it cannot exclude other reporters based on differing viewpoints.
“This is a fundamental requirement of the Constitution.”
The original article entitled “Judge Orders White House to Restore AP’s Access to Press Pool” was published in English in the Epoch Times.