Federal judge blocks Hegseth’s Pentagon press escort policy

A federal judge has temporarily blocked the Pentagon from enforcing its restrictive escort policy against credentialed reporters, signaling the third time this court has ruled against the Pentagon’s press restrictions — and the second time this judge has blocked the escort policy.

In the 35-page ruling, U.S. District Judge Paul Friedman found that the escort policy — implemented by Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and requiring journalists to have an official escort at all times while reporting from the Pentagon — likely violates the First Amendment.

Friedman also highlights the importance of the free press, writing, “This Court has spoken at several points about the critical importance of protecting the freedoms enshrined in the First Amendment, and that evergreen message bears repeating,” he writes. “As our country celebrates its 250th anniversary this very week, that principle must not be abandoned now.”

Theodore Boutros, Jr. argued the case on behalf of The New York Times and lauded the ruling.

“The Department’s Interim Policy, including its “escort requirement,” is exactly what the district court found it to be: retaliation against The Times for exercising its First Amendment rights,” he said in a statement to MS NOW.

Sean Parnell, a spokesman for the Pentagon, posted on X Tuesday that the ruling “strips away reasonable security measures and will make it easier for sensitive and classified information to reach our adversaries,” adding that the Department vows to appeal the decision.

Friedman heard arguments in the case earlier this month. The New York Times, which brought the lawsuit, had argued the escort policy violates the First Amendment, making reporting impossible by imposing unnecessary burdens on reporters.

The Pentagon has maintained the policy is necessary to protect military secrets and other national security information.

This was the second lawsuit brought by the New York Times, challenging the Pentagon’s crackdown on press freedoms. The newspaper’s legal challenges began in December when it filed the first lawsuit challenging the Pentagon’s original restrictive press policy that it rolled out last fall. That policy placed restrictions on reporting unauthorized information.

Friedman, the same judge who is overseeing this challenge, sided with the Times in March, finding the policy unconstitutional.

Following that ruling, the Pentagon almost immediately issued a new policy. In addition to introducing the escort requirement, this policy also closed “Correspondents’ Corridor” — the in-house workspace for credentialed reporters — and relocated that press workspace to an annex facility outside the main Pentagon building.

In April, Friedman found the revised policy a violation of his court order and blocked the Pentagon from implementing it. The Defense Department appealed that ruling, arguing the press restrictions protected national security. A panel of judges on the D.C. The Circuit Court of Appeals partially paused the order, allowing the escort policy to remain in effect while the case continued.

That ruling prompted the New York Times to file this lawsuit, specifically challenging the escort policy.

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