Citizens Sue Trump Over White House News Limits

Six private citizens sued President Donald Trump on Monday, arguing that limits on which outlets can report from the White House cut off their own access to information about the government. The complaint was filed in federal district court in New York against Trump, White House chief of Susie Wiles, White House Communications Director Steven Cheung, and Secret Service Director Sean M. Curran. The Knight First Amendment Institute filed the case with the Media Freedom & Information Access Clinic at Yale Law School.

The plaintiffs are Kenneth Roth, former executive director of Human Rights Watch; journalist Daniel Froomkin; Yale historian Beverly Gage; Brooklyn Technical High School social studies teacher Peter Schmidt-Nowara; Lawfare editor Benjamin Wittes; and Ethan Young, editor-in-chief of The Daily Pennsylvanian at the University of Pennsylvania. Each states they rely on White House reporting for their work. The complaint asks a court to declare the access policy unconstitutional and to bar enforcement of it.

"The First Amendment protects the public's right to know what its government is doing," said Katie Fallow, deputy litigation director at the Knight First Amendment Institute. She added: "The White House cannot decide what information Americans receive by punishing critical reporting." The complaint argues the policy is viewpoint-based and unreasonable in a limited public forum, and seeks a broad injunction covering news outlets that cover the White House now and in the future.

A White House official, speaking in a statement the administration attributed to that official, said: "No person may demand access to the Oval Office." The statement said media that produce "misinformation and defamation are completely capable of reporting their manufactured stories from directly outside." The White House was responding to the lawsuit filed Monday.

The case joins a series of disputes over press access. CNN, MSNBC, and Politico journalists were barred from the White House in September, and a federal judge has since extended an order blocking enforcement of that ban while litigation continues; CNN pool coverage of Trump remains affected. The Associated Press was barred last year from the Oval Office, Air Force One, and some events after it declined to use "Gulf of America." The New York Times is in litigation over Pentagon escort rules, and ABC is contesting the administration over broadcast license renewals.

Schmidt-Nowara, who teaches at Brooklyn Technical High School, is quoted in the lawsuit as saying: "As a social studies teacher, I want my students to have access to accurate, independent reporting about their government." He added: "I joined this lawsuit because my students deserve to know what's happening in their government and to hear from a free and independent press." Young, the student journalist, said he relies on "a diverse, independent and trustworthy cohort" of White House reporters as his proxy.