Early Thursday, a federal judge sided against the president who appointed him.
U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly granted a temporary restraining order requiring the White House to reinstate press credentials for CNN, MS NOW, and Politico, reversing a ban Trump had announced the previous Friday. The order covers 78 journalists and stays in place for two weeks while the underlying lawsuit continues.
Kelly’s name might sound familiar to anyone who followed the Jim Acosta fight back in 2018.
He’s the same judge who ordered CNN’s press pass restored after the first Trump administration pulled it, relying then on a 1977 appeals court precedent requiring due process before the White House can strip a journalist’s access. He leaned on that same precedent again this week, telling the administration flatly, “Maybe, but this Court is bound by D.C. Circuit precedent, full stop.”
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The White House had tried framing the ban around national security, but Kelly wasn’t buying that explanation. “The Court is skeptical, at least on this record, that Defendants’ interest in safeguarding national security is the actual motivation for, or is even advanced by, the revocation of Plaintiffs’ hard passes,” he wrote in his eight-page ruling.
He pointed out a fairly obvious hole in that argument, too. Trump’s own words when he announced the ban never mentioned security at all. “Nothing in the record that predates this suit suggests that the revocation of Plaintiffs’ hard passes was motivated by national security concerns,” Kelly wrote, adding that Trump had instead focused publicly on what he called the outlets’ dishonesty and negativity.
Due process turned out to be the real issue driving the ruling. None of the three outlets received advance notice or a chance to respond before losing access, and Kelly found that alone enough to justify blocking the ban. “This is a high bar, but Plaintiffs have met it,” he wrote of the standard required for the restraining order.
The Justice Department had argued during Wednesday’s hearing that Trump could exclude reporters who don’t meet “widely known” journalism standards, framing White House access as “a privilege, not a right.” Kelly wasn’t impressed with the phrasing, calling the government’s standard “so vague it hardly does the trick.”
Theodore Boutrous Jr., lead attorney for the three outlets, welcomed the speed of the decision. “This is a strong ruling vindicating freedom of the press, due process and the rule of law,” he said in a statement. “We greatly appreciate the court’s swift action.”
Statement from Theodore J. Boutrous, Jr, attorney for CNN, MS NOW, and POLITICO:
“This is a strong ruling vindicating freedom of the press, due process and the rule of law. We greatly appreciate the court’s swift action.”
— Jesse Rodriguez (@JesseRodriguez) September 24, 2026
Trump had seen this coming, at least publicly.
Earlier in the week, he predicted he’d lose and criticized the judge ahead of the ruling, saying, “This is a judge who’s not a particularly fair judge.” He’s already signaled plans to appeal, and the Justice Department is expected to move quickly on that front.
Featured image via X screengrab
