1st Amendment: 6 New Yorkers sue White House over media bans

Six New York residents filed a lawsuit on Monday in federal district court, arguing that the Trump administration's media bans violate the public's First Amendment right to know what its government is doing.

The complaint names President Donald Trump, White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, Communications Director Steven Cheung, and Secret Service Director Sean M. Curran as defendants. The suit seeks a broad injunction to stop the administration from retaliating against news outlets based on their coverage.

Katie Fallow, deputy litigation director at the Knight First Amendment Institute, said the White House cannot decide what information Americans receive by punishing critical reporting. She stated that expelling reporters because of their coverage means the public loses access to independent reporting and gets something closer to government propaganda.

The plaintiffs represent the audience rather than the press. They include Kenneth Roth, former executive director of Human Rights Watch; Daniel Froomkin, a political journalist; Beverly Gage, a Yale history professor; Peter Schmidt-Nowara, a Brooklyn high school civics teacher; Benjamin Wittes, editor-in-chief of Lawfare; and Ethan Young, a student journalist at the University of Pennsylvania.

Schmidt-Nowara said he wants his students to have access to accurate, independent reporting about their government. He expressed grave concern that the administration's restrictions are cutting off access to crucial information.

The administration responded to the lawsuit by stating that no person may demand access to the Oval Office. An unidentified White House official said that media peddling misinformation and defamation are capable of reporting their stories from directly outside the building.

This case follows other legal battles involving major news organizations. CNN, MSNBC, and Politico are currently litigating after their journalists were banished in September. A federal judge recently extended an order preventing the White House from enforcing that ban while the case proceeds. The Associated Press is also suing after reporters were barred from the Oval Office and Air Force One last year. The New York Times and ABC News are involved in separate disputes over Pentagon escort policies and broadcast license renewals, respectively.

The new complaint argues that the policy is unconstitutional because it imposes viewpoint-based restrictions on a limited public forum. It claims that the policy deprives the public of reporting from disfavored organizations and inevitably affects other outlets, as every journalist must now account for the possibility that a critical word may result in their access being revoked.