CNN, MS NOW and Politico on Monday sued the Trump administration for barring them from the White House grounds, saying it was a violation of their First Amendment rights to cover the president.

President Donald Trump on Friday declared a ban on the three news outlets, saying he was fed up with what he described as negative coverage. On Saturday, reporters from each outlet were denied access to the White House. On Monday, in an extraordinary escalation of the standoff, major television networks agreed to suspend their pooled coverage of Trump after the White House refused to allow CNN to serve as a pool representative.

The three news organizations suing the Trump administration issued a joint statement on Monday.

“Without notice or process, the White House revoked our journalists’ credentials because it objected to our reporting,” they said. “Left unchallenged, this threatens press freedom and the public’s right to independent journalism free from government interference.”

The joint complaint, which was filed with the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, said the “Constitution does not allow a president or any other government official to deprive the press of their First Amendment rights and liberty and property interests with no notice or process based solely on his dislike of the content of their reporting.”

The news outlets asked the court to restore their access to the White House as quickly as possible. They filed a separate motion seeking an emergency order that would remain in effect while the litigation unfolds.

“As a result of the ban, they have lost the ability to perform essential newsgathering at the seat of the executive branch, where critically important newsworthy events occur every day,” the complaint reads.

In a Monday post on Truth Social, the platform he owns, Trump wrote: “The White House is not instituting an assault on the Free Press, something which I cherish. It is instituting an assault on the FAKE NEWS, something that has grown like Cancer in our beloved United States of America.”

The president’s ban represents a significant escalation in his ongoing battles with the news media, particularly in Washington. Trump has brought friendlier outlets into the White House briefing room and moved to bar one publication, The Associated Press, from the Oval Office, which is also being challenged in court. But he had not barred any outlets from the entire White House grounds.

Press freedom advocates and other media outlets have blasted the ban as unconstitutional. “No news organization — or person — should be retaliated against by the government over the words they use,” Lauren Easton, chief communications officer for the AP, said in a statement on Saturday.

In previous legal fights about journalist access, federal courts have ruled that once government officials open their doors to a press corps they may not boot specific outlets just because they don’t like the gist of their reporting.

During Trump’s first term, the White House rescinded the credentials of two journalists, CNN’s Jim Acosta and Playboy correspondent Brian Karem. Both were restored after separate court challenges, and in each case, judges highlighted a requirement that before yanking press passes, the White House must provide the affected journalists a chance to rebut the grounds for doing so.

In this case, the outlets “received zero advance notice,” according to the lawsuit.

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This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

By Erik Wemple/Andrew Leyden
c. 2026 The New York Times Company