The trio of media outlets that President Donald Trump abruptly banned from accessing the White House were in court Wednesday to argue their expulsion was unconstitutional and should be blocked immediately.
\n\nU.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly did not immediately rule on the request after hearing arguments from an attorney for CNN, Politico and MS NOW and a lawyer for the Justice Department.
\n\nDuring the roughly 45-minute hearing, Kelly, a Trump appointee, appeared particularly focused on the “due process” — or lack thereof — that the journalists whose hard passes were revoked received.
\n\nHe said due process requirements laid out by the judges in earlier cases involving press access, including the appeals court, were not followed in this case. “The government says those cases were wrongly decided,” Kelly said, but he has a “duty” to apply them in this case.
\n\nIn a court filing Monday ahead of the hearing, lawyers for the media outlets said the president’s “ban could not be a more direct assault on the First Amendment nor a more blatant violation of our most fundamental constitutional principles.”
\n\n“The ban is unconstitutional and should be immediately restrained,” they contended, citing legal precedent in the District of Columbia and U.S.
Original source: https://www.nbcnews.com/