CNN, MS NOW, Politico due back in court to fight White House ban

Washington — The Justice Department and lawyers for CNN, MS NOW and Politico will be back in court Thursday as the legal battle continues over President Trump's decision to ban reporters from the three news outlets from the White House over what he said is their negative coverage of his administration.U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly is considering whether to grant the news outlets longer-term relief after issuing an order last month that temporarily blocked Mr. Trump's bans and required the White House to reinstate the reporters' access to the complex.Kelly's temporary restraining order is set to expire Thursday.Lawyers for the trio of news organizations are now urging Kelly to impose a preliminary injunction preventing the White House from depriving the news outlets and their reporters of White House access while the case proceeds."Every day, critically important news is breaking at the White House, and the ban will substantially interfere with Plaintiffs' ability to cover it," they argued in a filing.

"The ban also inflicts an injury on all news media organizations — which now risk a similar fate if they engage in fact-based, independent reporting the President deems insufficiently favorable."In his temporary order, Kelly said the news outlets were likely to succeed in arguing they were denied due process, since their journalists were not given prior notice that their reporting