Donald Trump personally made the decision to revoke the Associated Press’ “special media access” to the Oval Office, according to a Monday morning court filing from the president’s lawyers.
“The President has absolute discretion to give interviews to whomever he pleases — the First Amendment does not compel him to give a personal audience to any particular journalist,” President Trump’s lawyers wrote in the filing. The filing was submitted ahead of an emergency court hearing scheduled for Monday afternoon.
“As the Associated Press itself reported, the President himself made the decision to terminate its access,” the filing added.
The filing comes after the AP sued three members of the Trump Administration on Friday evening, with the outlet claiming the White House press team had violated its First Amendment rights by indefinitely banning it from Oval Office press briefings. The ban stems from the AP’s refusal to use the term “Gulf of America,” after President Trump signed an executive order last month renaming the Gulf of Mexico on government maps and other documents.
“The press and all people in the United States have the right to choose their own words and not be retaliated against by the government,” the AP said in its lawsuit. “The Constitution does not allow the government to control speech. Allowing such government control and retaliation to stand is a threat to every American’s freedom.”
President Trump, his attorneys, and his press team do not believe that is the case. The Monday filing from his attorneys said the president has the right to extend access to the Oval Office, Air Force One, and Mar-a-Lago at his discretion.
“The president’s discretion over these small spaces simply does not implicate constitutional rights — for citizens, journalists, or news organizations alike,” the lawsuit said.
The filing added the AP has not “established irreparable harm from being treated like most media organizations that do not receive special media access to the president. It continues to cover the president, including during limited access events, by receiving pool reports and media.”
The Trump-AP feud started on Feb. 11, when the outlet was first barred from an Oval Office press conference the president held alongside Elon Musk.
Looking ahead, the legal battle between the Trump Administration and the AP will make for a fascinating case, according to one First Amendment expert. Lee C. Bollinger, president emeritus at Columbia University, told TheWrap earlier this week this will be a free speech issue that enters “unchartered waters,” with both sides having strong arguments in their favor.
“It’s true that the government doesn’t have any special obligations to allow access under the First Amendment to government activities,” Bollinger explained. “However, if the government does choose to have press briefings — and there is a long tradition of that — it should not be able to punish particular members of the press, especially established members like the AP, from being present, based upon their viewpoints. That would be a new First Amendment case, drawing on classic First Amendment principles.”
If he had to put money on it, Bollinger said, he would lean towards the AP winning a case, saying the outlet has “more than a 50-50” shot of getting the ban reversed.
