Trump-appointed judge orders White House to restore AP access
Trump-appointed Judge Trevor McFadden granted a preliminary injunction ordering the White House to restore access to The Associated Press in the Oval Office, on Air Force One and other spaces open only to the press pool.
"[W]hile the AP does not have a constitutional right to enter the Oval Office, it does have a right to not be excluded because of its viewpoint," McFadden wrote.
"Indeed, the Government has been brazen about this," McFadden added, pointing to the president's objection to the AP's continued use of the "Gulf of Mexico" rather than Trump's preferred "Gulf of America."
"The Government offers no other plausible explanation for its treatment of the AP. The Constitution forbids viewpoint discrimination, even in a nonpublic forum like the Oval Office."
Throughout his 41-page ruling, the judge relied heavily on the testimony of AP photographer Evan Vucci and correspondent Zeke Miller, both of whom told the court last month that their inability to serve alongside their pool colleagues set the AP's journalism back, causing "damaging ripples across its reporting capabilities."
"These disadvantages have poisoned the AP's business model," McFadden said.
The judge noted that since the AP filed its suit, the White House has set aside the traditional role of the White House Correspondents' Association and taken it upon itself to determine how the pool is constituted.
Nevertheless, McFadden wrote, it is unconstitutional for the president to single out and ban a disfavored outlet because of its viewpoint.
McFadden stayed his own order until Sunday "to provide the Government time to seek an emergency stay from a higher court and to prepare to implement the Court's injunction."
-ABC News' Steven Portnoy
