AP and Trump administration argue access case before federal appeals court; no ruling yet

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Associated Press and the Trump administration renewed their argument Monday over a president’s ability to limit media access to journalists he disagrees with, resuming a courtroom dispute with potential First Amendment implications that began last winter when the president announced that he had renamed the Gulf of Mexico.

President Donald Trump restricted the AP’s access to events in smaller spaces like the Oval Office and Air Force One, leading the news outlet to sue. A lower federal court ruled that Trump improperly retaliated against the outlet because it did not follow and refer to the body of water as the Gulf of America.

The U.S. District Court of Appeals in Washington prevented the ruling from taking effect — effectively leaving it up to the White House to determine the AP’s access. A three-judge panel from that court, two of them Trump appointees who voted against AP as part of a separate appellate panel last spring, heard arguments Monday on an appeal of the lower court’s ruling.

No immediate ruling was issued.

A fundamental disagreement about the rules of access

The administration says it is up the White House to determine the makeup of “pools” that cover the president in places where space is limited. And he can reward or punish reporters with access in these cases in the same way he does in granting interviews, Trump’s team argued.

The AP says that if journalists are invited to cover an event on a pool basis — such as last week when the president had meetings in the Oval Office with Saudi Arabia’s crown prince and New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani — it cannot discriminate on the basis of a news organization’s freedom of speech.

“The First Amendment does not stop at the Oval Office door,” said Charles Tobin, the attorney representing the AP.

Since the dispute began, the White House has given AP writers sporadic access to limited-space events at the White House. AP photographers have received much more frequent access. Tobin argued the White House has hurt the AP’s business with its new policy; for years, AP journalists had been virtually always included in these pool events.

But in its brief supporting its own position, the administration said that “to the extent that the AP built a business model that depended on the assumption that it would maintain this favored-nation status in perpetuity, that is hardly the government’s fault.”

The AP reports and produces for thousands of news outlets and other organizations around the world.

Tobin made his argument before three judges who illustrated that the AP faces an uphill battle in this fight, despite the lower court ruling. Two of them, Gregory Katsas and Neomi Rao, are Trump appointees who voted against the AP as part of a separate appellate panel this past spring. And they expressed skepticism Monday about how a rule could be put in place that satisfies the outlet’s concerns.

“You would eventually need an injunction against the president for this to work, don’t you,” Rao asked him. It’s extremely rare for a judge to issue an injunction against a president; they generally act against people who work for the chief executive.

“How would we decide what’s a ‘pool’ event and an individual journalist’s event?” Rao asked.

Yaakov Roth, the principal deputy assistant attorney general arguing for the Trump administration, also wondered about rules put in place limiting a president’s ability to invite people to see him at the White House. “Nobody is going to come up here and say that the president has to invite equal numbers of Republicans and Democrats to the White House Christmas party,” he said.

Roth was questioned by the third judge on the panel, Robert Wilkins, who asked if the administration could bar a group of citizens from Kansas who had obtained tickets to tour the White House if a Trump appointee discovered one of them had posted something on social media critical of the president.

“Woe to the public,” said Wilkins, who was appointed by former President Barack Obama.

Making a case that press freedom transcends the press

Julie Pace, AP’s executive editor, wrote in an op-ed piece Monday morning that the question of access is not just about AP; it’s about people’s access to the government that works for them.

“When we talk about press freedom, we are really talking about your freedom. Reporters ask questions, photographers take pictures, and video journalists record history on your behalf to ensure that you are informed about the things you don’t have the time to unearth, watch or learn about for yourself,” Pace wrote.

“Letting the government control which journalists can cover the highest office in the land and setting rules about what those journalists can say or write is a direct attempt to undercut the First Amendment,” Pace wrote. “It should worry all of us.”

Nearly four dozen press organizations, and news outlets from ProPublica to Fox News Channel, along with The New York Times and The Washington Post, filed a brief in support of the AP.

The AP’s decision on the Gulf of Mexico is significant because it is included in its influential Stylebook, which sets guidance for consistency on usage of phrases that is consulted by journalists around the world.

AP style recommends also acknowledging Trump’s renaming of the Gulf. The president said that AP’s access would remain restricted until it changed its style.

Somewhat ironically, the issue of naming the Gulf of Mexico has faded. A study by the Nieman Lab last month found that in journalism, use of the Gulf of America has largely been confined to conservative outlets and trade publications that deal frequently with government regulation.

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David Bauder covers media for The Associated Press.

David Bauder, The Associated Press