Associated Press seeks full appeals court hearing on access to Trump administration events

Key Points

• The Associated Press has requested an en banc hearing before the full U.S. Court of Appeals to overturn a 3-judge ruling and restore its access to certain presidential events, arguing the decision infringes on the First Amendment.
• A 2-1 panel decision paused an April ruling that found the Trump administration’s restrictions on AP journalists attending Oval Office and small events were retaliatory and unlawful.
• Access was cut in February after AP continued using the term “Gulf of Mexico” instead of the administration’s preferred “Gulf of America,” resulting in text reporters largely losing pool privileges while photographers still attend.
• The full appeals court, comprising nine Democratic-appointed and six Republican-appointed judges, could reverse the panel’s split decision if it grants the rehearing.

The Associated Press on Tuesday asked for a hearing before the full U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, seeking to overturn a three-judge panel's ruling that allowed the Trump administration to continue blocking the AP's access to some presidential events — a four-month case that has raised questions about what level of journalistic access to the presidency the First Amendment permits.

Three judges of that court on Friday, in a 2-1 decision, said it was OK for President Donald Trump to continue keeping AP journalists out of the Oval Office or other small events in retaliation for the news outlet's decision not to follow his lead in changing the Gulf of Mexico's name.

He had sought a pause of a lower court's ruling in the AP's favor in April that the administration was improperly punishing the news organization for the content of its speech.

“The decision of the appellate panel to pause the district court's order allows the White House to discriminate and retaliate over words it does not like, a violation of the First Amendment,” AP spokesperson Patrick Maks said. “We are seeking a rehearing of this decision by the full appellate court because an essential American principle is at stake.”

A hearing before the full court would change the landscape — and possibly the outcome as well. The two judges who ruled in Trump's favor on Friday had been appointed to the bench by him. The full court consists of nine members appointed by Democratic presidents, and six by Republicans.

The news outlet’s access to events in the Oval Office and Air Force One was cut back starting in February after the AP said it would continue referring to the Gulf of Mexico in its copy, while noting Trump’s wishes that it instead be renamed the Gulf of America.

For decades, a reporter and a photographer for the AP — a 179-year-old wire service whose material is sent to thousands of news outlets across the world and carried on its own website, reaching billions of people — had been part of a small-group “pool” that covers a president in places where space is limited.

Now, an AP photographer routinely gets access to these events, while text reporters rarely do.

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David Bauder writes about media for the AP. Follow him at http://x.com/dbauder and https://bsky.app/profile/dbauder.bsky.social.