OAN Staff Blake Wolf
11:51 AM – Wednesday, April 9, 2025
A federal judge ruled that the Trump administration must restore the Associated Press’ access to the White House after the network was barred for its refusal to acknowledge the Gulf of America name change.
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U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden made the ruling on Tuesday, restoring access to the AP into the Oval Office, Air Force One, and other spaces made available to press pool members.
“This injunction does not limit the various permissible reasons the Government may have for excluding journalists from limited-access events. It does not mandate that all eligible journalists, or indeed any journalists at all, be given access to the President or nonpublic government spaces,” McFadden wrote.
“It does not prohibit government officials from freely choosing which journalists to sit down with for interviews or which ones’ questions they answer. And it certainly does not prevent senior officials from publicly expressing their own views,” he continued.
“No, the Court simply holds that under the First Amendment, if the Government opens its doors to some journalists—be it to the Oval Office, the East Room, or elsewhere—it cannot then shut those doors to other journalists because of their viewpoints,” McFadden added. “The Constitution requires no less.”
The judge’s ruling follows after the Associated Press was barred from White House access due to the outlet refusing to recognize the Gulf of America name change in February, as Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt stated “it is a fact that the body of water off the coast of Louisiana is called the Gulf of America, and I’m not sure why news outlets don’t want to call it that.”
“Nobody has the right to go into the Oval Office and ask the president of the United States questions,” Leavitt stated. “We reserve the right to decide who gets to go into the Oval Office.”
Meanwhile, Julie Pace, the Associated Press’ senior vice president, responded to the Trump administration’s decision, arguing that the administration was punishing the organization for the “content of its speech.”
“It is among the most basic tenets of the First Amendment that the government cannot retaliate against the public or the press for what they say,” Pace added.
The ruling is set to take effect on April 13th, allowing the Trump administration adequate time to appeal the ruling.
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