WASHINGTON — CNN, MS NOW and Politico say they plan to sue President Donald Trump and other administration officials in a bid to regain access to the White House after reporters from each outlet were denied entry over the weekend.
The news outlets, in a drafted lawsuit to be filed later Monday, Sept. 21, ask a federal court in Washington to immediately block a ban on the three outlets that Trump has started to enforce and to restore access to the reporters.
The suit argues the CNN, MS NOW and Politico reporters were denied their First Amendment rights to a free press under the Constitution and their right to due process under the 14th Amendment.
“President Trump has said in no uncertain terms that he would prefer only to be covered by news organizations and reporters who praise his administration,” the lawsuit reads. “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 his dislike of the content of their reporting. The ban is unconstitutional and should be immediately restrained.”
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CNN correspondent Betsy Klein reports from the sidewalk outside the White House after US President Donald Trump banned three major news outlets, CNN, MS NOW and Politico, from the White House in Washington, D.C., US, September 19, 2026.
Other co-defendants besides Trump are White House communications aide Steven Cheung, White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles and Secret Service Director Sean Curran.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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After Trump announced the White House ban on the three outlets last Friday, Sept. 18, reporters for CNN, MS NOW and Politico were unable to enter White House security the next day and had their White House press passes confiscated. Reporters from the two television networks moved outside the White House to a nearby sidewalk to conduct their live shots.
US President Donald J. Trump makes an announcement on healthcare in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, D.C., US, September 18, 2026.
As a precedent, the suit cites the 1977 Sherill v. Knight case, when a federal appeals court ruled the White House cannot arbitrarily deny press passes to reporters based on the content of their coverage if the White House has voluntarily opened its doors to media and established facilities for the press.
“The White House press facilities are ‘made publicly available as a source of information for newsmen’ and serve the interests of ‘the public at large’ in receiving information ‘gathered out of a multitude of tongues,” the lawsuit says, taking quotes from the Sherill v. Knight case. “Banning Plaintiffs, among the most prominent news organizations inthe country, based on their perceived viewpoints frustrates those purposes.
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“And the exclusion criteria here—that the President perceives a journalist’s reporting as ‘fake’ or ‘negative’—are sovague and arbitrary that they cannot count as a ‘sensible basis for distinguishing what may come in from what must stay out’ and are thus unreasonable,” the suit adds.
The suit also references Trump in 2018 pulling the press credentials of CNN correspondent Jim Acosta. A federal judge later ruled on the side of CNN and forced the White House to allow Acosta to keep his press pass.
Reach Joey Garrison on X @joeygarrison.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: CNN, MS NOW and Politico to sue Trump over White House ban
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