The Associated Press is returning to a federal courtroom on Thursday to ask a judge to restore its full access to presidential events, after the White House retaliated against the news outlet last month for not following President Trump’s executive order to rename the Gulf of Mexico.
In a hearing last month, U.S. District Court Judge Trevor N. McFadden refused the AP’s request for an injunction to stop the White House from barring reporters and photographers from events in the Oval Office and Air Force One. He urged the Trump administration to reconsider its ban before Thursday’s hearing. It hasn’t.
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Julie Pace | The Associated Press (published in The Wall Street Journal)
For anyone who thinks the Associated Press’s lawsuit against President Trump’s White House is about the name of a body of water, think bigger. It’s really about whether the government can control what you say.
The ability to comment on politics and consume news created without interference and intimidation by the government is central to American democracy. So central, in fact, that it is protected by the First Amendment to the Constitution.
This principle is now under threat. On Thursday Judge Trevor N. McFadden of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia hears arguments on whether the government can bar AP reporters from covering presidential events. The White House has locked us out simply because we refer to the Gulf of Mexico by the name it has carried for more than 400 years, while acknowledging that Mr. Trump has chosen to call it the Gulf of America.
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Julie Pace is AP's executive editor.
