ACLU to Federal Court: White House Banning of CNN, MS NOW, and Politico Is Unconstitutional Retaliation

WASHINGTON — The American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU of the District of Columbia (ACLU of D.C.) today filed an amicus brief in support of CNN, MS NOW, and Politico in their lawsuit against the Trump administration over the revocation of their reporters' White House press credentials. The brief filed by the ACLU and ACLU-D.C. warns that retaliation against the press is a tactic that “belongs to a society much different and more oppressive than our own.”

The brief supports the media companies' claim that the White House violated the First Amendment when it restricted their access to official events because Donald Trump has been unhappy with their coverage. The brief argues that incursions on free expression, left unchecked, frequently lead to greater repression, as demonstrated by American history and the modern experience of other nations.

The brief also catalogues the Trump administration’s alarming campaign of retaliation against dissenting voices.

“It’s unconstitutional for the president to ban certain media outlets from the White House because he doesn't like how they report about him," said Arthur Spitzer, senior counsel for the ACLU of D.C. “The White House is the people’s house, not the president’s private golf club.”

On September 18, Trump announced that the outlets’ reporters would be banned from the White House, and they were denied entry the next day. On September 21, CNN, MS NOW, and Politico filed a First Amendment challenge to the ban. Two days later, a federal court in the District of Columbia issued a temporary restraining order against the administration. That order lasts 14 days, so the plaintiffs are now filing for a preliminary injunction in their favor.

“The White House press pool guarantees the public’s timely access to important information about the president and the executive branch,” said Brian Hauss, deputy director of the ACLU’s Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project. “If the president can banish media outlets just because he doesn’t like their coverage, the American public will hear exclusively from sycophants and stenographers.”

This isn't the first time that Trump has barred a media outlet from the White House over his discontent with its coverage. In 2025, the administration banned the Associated Press over its refusal to call the Gulf of Mexico the "Gulf of America." The AP challenged the administration in a case that is ongoing. The ACLU also filed an amicus brief supporting the AP in that lawsuit.

CNN et al. v. Trump was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. The ACLU's brief is available at this link: https://www.acludc.org/app/uploads/2026/09/Amicus-CNN-v-Trump-FILESTAMPED.pdf