A federal appeals court will allow the White House to exclude the Associated Press from access to the Oval Office, Mar-a-Lago and Air Force One if it chooses, according to a new court order in the ongoing legal battle over press access.
The decision hangs on a court finding that some White House spaces are not open to the broader public or large groups of press, and so the White House can choose which journalists it chooses to admit.
A lower court judge previously blocked the administration from excluding the Associated Press, and the appeals court has sided with the White House at this time.
The decision could bring about more appeals over the White House press corps and its access around the president.
“These restricted presidential spaces are not First Amendment fora opened for private speech and discussion,” DC Circuit Judge Neomi Rao wrote Friday. “No one suggests the Oval Office is a traditional public forum such as a park or sidewalk held in trust for expressive activity.”
The court, in a split 2-1 decision Friday, didn’t include excluding the AP from the larger East Room space.
CNN has reached out to the White House and AP for comment.
The AP has claimed the White House is discriminatory against it because of a First Amendment-protected viewpoint –specifically not changing its editorial style guide to rename the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America, as President Donald Trump has directed.
CNN’s Brian Stelter and Samantha Waldenberg contributed to this report.
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