MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
Three major news organizations are confronting the Trump administration in federal court today over the president's efforts to ban their reporters from the White House.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
CNN, MS NOW and Politico say that's a violation of their constitutional rights.
MARTIN: NPR media correspondent David Folkenflik is covering the lawsuit, and he's with us now. Good morning, David
DAVID FOLKENFLIK, BYLINE: Good morning, Michel.
MARTIN: So where do things currently stand?
FOLKENFLIK: So in mid-September, President Trump did something he sort of talked about doing for a long time - he banned reporters from those three outlets. He posted on Truth Social. He talked about it publicly. Here's a clip of what he had to say on that day.
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PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: There's something wrong with a country that can allow people to write purposely negative stories. Now, if they want to write them, that's fine. But I don't have to let them into my - into the people's house.
FOLKENFLIK: In relatively short order, Michel, the news outlets filed a lawsuit here in federal court in D.C., and a judge instituted what's called a temporary restraining order, saying, hey, you can't do that for now while I have a little time to think about these issues. But there have been points along the way in the weeks since, where the White House has flouted the order or done things that seem inconsistent.
It's turned it into a roller coaster, for example, for CNN, which has part of this pool of five major networks that aren't just showing up at the White House to cover the president, but actually get to cover him and tape it and share that footage with news outlets across the country. They bear the logistical obligations but also bear the cost of doing that and so they share it. And at times, CNN has not been allowed to be in the pool. At times, it has. And most recently, CNN has been allowed but hasn't been allowed into these smaller spaces like Air Force One.
MARTIN: And what are the news organizations arguing?
FOLKENFLIK: Well, the news outlets are arguing that the White House is trying to demonstrate that it has the right to decide where, when and how they can cover the president at any given moment, pretty much on a whim. And they say that's a violation of their First Amendment rights - that is their free speech rights. It is true that the president and the White House doesn't have to allow anybody on the grounds and give them credentials.
Once they do, they can't withdraw them because they don't like the speech. That's the argument. And it seems to be pretty settled law in cases, including a few in Trump's first term. And also they're arguing this is a violation of their Fifth Amendment rights. That is, the president didn't warn them ahead of time that he was going to do this, didn't give them a process to appeal. That's called due process.
MARTIN: And given all that, what is the White House saying about this? What's their argument other than that the president doesn't like these people?
FOLKENFLIK: Well, they've said that these news outlets are publishing things that are untrue, fake news in the term of the president, but also they're invoking now national security concerns. They're pointing to such coverage as questions of what is in the bunker or area below the new renovated ballroom in the East Wing of the White House. They say that's a national security question. They say that MS NOW's coverage, disclosing that there's a leak investigation into a story that was embarrassing for FBI Director Kash Patel, that is, and other such things.
And so they're saying national security, and they're saying the executive essentially outweighs the courts and a judge on this. And it's saying, look, we have had some court cases, including at least preliminary ruling in a case involving The Associated Press, in which we are allowed to prevent people from being able to go into smaller spaces like the Oval Office or Air Force One. So it's asking the judge to essentially dismiss all of this. It's saying we have the right to do what we want.
MARTIN: And how do you anticipate that this will be resolved?
FOLKENFLIK: Well, today is the day in which this temporary restraining order will dissipate. So the judge is going to have to decide soon whether he offers this preliminary injunction saying, you can't do it anymore, or whether he sets this for trial and says, let's hold things in abeyance.
MARTIN: That is NPR media correspondent David Folkenflik. David, thank you.
FOLKENFLIK: You bet. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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