You need to act now to defend the First Amendment against Trump's coordinated assault on the free press. Banning CNN, MSNBC, and Politico from White House access isn't a policy — it's viewpoint-based retaliation, and it's flatly unconstitutional under Sherrill v. Knight (1977), which prohibits the White House from arbitrarily revoking press access based on the content of coverage. Trump didn't even bother hiding his motive. He posted on Truth Social about "FICTION and LIES" and then had press badges disabled the next morning. That's Exhibit A in the case against him.
This isn't a one-off tantrum. It's part of a pattern: the AP was locked out of the press pool for refusing to rename the Gulf of Mexico, FBI agents have shown up at reporters' homes with grand jury subpoenas, Stars and Stripes editors were fired days after publishing an embarrassing story about a 286-day naval deployment, and the FCC has been actively threatening media companies over their content. Trump himself admitted on the record that this ban probably won't survive a legal challenge — he's doing it anyway because the point is intimidation, not legality.
Legal experts including Theodore Boutrous and Jameel Jaffer of the Knight First Amendment Institute have called this unconstitutional on its face. Congress cannot stay silent while the executive branch runs a multi-agency campaign to strangle the Fourth Estate. Speak out publicly, support legislation protecting press access, and use every oversight tool available to put a stop to this now.
First sent on September 21 by Jeffrey Barlow
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