A federal judge has ordered the Trump administration to restore White House access for now to journalists working for three national news organizations in a victory for the news media that the president has increasingly targeted during his second administration.

U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly said that reporters for MS NOW, CNN and Politico should all immediately regain access for at least 14 days. Kelly granted the motion on due process grounds, and is refusing to stay his ruling in the interim, meaning the order goes into effect now. “Plaintiffs have shown a likelihood of success, at least on their Fifth Amendment procedural due process claim,” Kelly wrote. “Plaintiffs are also likely to succeed in showing that their hard passes were revoked without constitutionally adequate due process.”

Kelly’s ruling did not yet address the First Amendment claims made by the news organizations. He is also still weighing a longer-term block on Trump’s ban.

Kelly additionally seemed skeptical of the government’s national security arguments. ”For one thing, nothing in the record that predates this suit suggests that the revocation of Plaintiffs’ hard passes was motivated by national security concerns,” he wrote.

The judge said the Trump administration provided no hard evidence to support this argument, pointing to Trump’s own announcement of the ban. “Certainly, that is not what President Trump said when he announced that he was ‘banning’ Plaintiffs from the White House — instead, he focused on the alleged lack of truthfulness and negativity of Plaintiffs’ reporting,” Kelly wrote.

Theodore Boutrous, a lawyer representing the news organizations applauded the order. “This is a strong ruling vindicating freedom of the press, due process and the rule of law. We greatly appreciate the court’s swift action,” Boutrous said in a statement early Thursday morning.

MS NOW has reached out to the White House and Justice Department for comment.

The ruling comes just a few hours after Kelly heard arguments on Wednesday and less than a week after the three national media organizations sued Trump and top administration officials over the ban. Lawyers for MS NOW, CNN and Politico alleged the ban constitutes viewpoint discrimination and violates the First Amendment. Trump argued he was barring the organizations from White House coverage because he thinks their coverage is unfavorable to him.

Kelly’s ruling is a victory for the media, which has repeatedly been targeted by the Trump administration as it has sought to restrict access to the Oval Office, the Pentagon and slash funding for public broadcasters while undertaking a review of broadcast licenses.

Ahead of the decision, Trump indicated he would appeal any loss.

“Almost without question and, as usual, we’ll go for appeal because Fake News people and publications that only write negatively, and who violate our National Security by writing false and defamatory stories with unknown ‘sources,’ shouldn’t be allowed access to the most important Office anywhere in the World,” the president wrote on Truth Social on Monday.

Generally you cannot appeal a temporary restraining order — the type of ruling the judge issued — but the Trump administration has done it recently in other cases.

Kelly appeared to anticipate this in his ruling, saying he would not pause his order to allow the Trump administration the opportunity to appeal, writing, “Doing so runs against the purpose of such an order, which is to immediately — but temporarily — preserve the last uncontested status quo while the litigation proceeds,” he wrote. “And in any event, temporary restraining orders are generally unappealable.”

In a virtual hearing Wednesday, lawyers for the news organizations argued the White House ban violates both the First Amendment and the due process clause of the Fifth Amendment.

Lawyers representing the three news outlets argued the ban is blatantly unconstitutional viewpoint discrimination, which is when the government treats First Amendment-protected speech differently based on the perspective it expresses.

“President Trump has said in no uncertain terms that he disapproves of ‘negative’ coverage that ‘diminish[es]’ him and would prefer coverage that only praises him and his policies,” they wrote in a court filing. “But the Constitution does not allow a president or any other government official to deprive the press of their First Amendment rights and liberty and property interests with no notice or process based solely on the official’s dislike of the content of their reporting.”

He also said the news organizations had received due process, pointing to letters sent to MS NOW, CNN and Politico on Tuesday with an apparent explanation for the ban.

“Your organization has exhibited behavior in violation of the standards of professionalism and decorum expected of those given access to the White House complex, including by trafficking in verifiable falsehoods about national security and other issues, and publishing sensitive or classified information,” the White House Press Office wrote in a letter to MS NOW.

The Trump administration also alleged the news organizations were banned because they posed a national security risk. 

This is not the first time Kelly has weighed this issue. During Trump’s first term, the White House confiscated the press credentials for then-CNN reporter Jim Acosta following a contentious press conference in 2018. CNN sued, asking the court to block the suspension. Kelly granted that request and ordered the White House to return Acosta’s press pass, citing a violation of due process.

Shortly after Kelly’s ruling, the Trump administration reinstated Acosta’s credential and CNN dropped the lawsuit.

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From MS Now.