Federal judge strikes down Pentagon press restrictions as unconstitutional
U.S. District Judge Paul Friedman ruled Friday that the Trump administration's Pentagon press policy violates the First Amendment, blocking key restrictions on reporter access.
11:04 PM
A federal judge on Friday struck down key portions of the Pentagon's restrictive press access policy, ruling that the Trump administration's controls on journalists violated the First Amendment and constitutional due process rights.
U.S. District Judge Paul L. Friedman of the Federal District Court in Washington sided with the New York Times and Times reporter Julian E. Barnes, who sued the Defense Department and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth in December. The judge voided several provisions that had enabled the Pentagon to suspend or revoke credentials based on reporting.
"A primary purpose of the First Amendment is to enable the press to publish what it will and the public to read what it chooses, free of any official proscription," Friedman wrote in his opinion. "Those who drafted the First Amendment believed that the nation's security requires a free press and an informed people and that such security is endangered by governmental suppression of political speech."
The Pentagon introduced the new press policy in October, requiring credentialed reporters to sign restrictions in order to maintain daily access to the building. The policy prohibited journalists from soliciting information that the Defense Department did not directly provide and revoked credentials of outlets that refused to sign.
The restrictions prompted major news organizations to cease day-to-day Pentagon operations. News outlets including the Washington Post, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Associated Press, Reuters, Bloomberg News, the Atlantic, CBS News, ABC News, NBC News, CNN and Fox News declined to sign the new rules. Of 56 news outlets in the Pentagon Press Association, only one agreed to sign onto the new policy.
The ruling left in place other parts of the policy that had been in effect in earlier iterations and were not subject to the legal challenge. Friedman's decision represents a significant setback to Hegseth's effort to exert greater control over press coverage of the Defense Department.
The Times argued that the credentialing policy violated journalists' constitutional rights to free speech and due process. The judge's ruling blocked the provisions that had allowed the Pentagon to enforce the restrictions on independent reporting.