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By Jordan King
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President Donald Trump's Department of Justice (DOJ) said the nearly 50-year-old ruling protecting journalists’ access to White House press credentials was "wrong" and "should be overruled."
In a court filing on Tuesday, the DOJ argued against parts of the 1977 ruling in Sherrill v. Knight, which found that, if the White House denied a journalist a press pass, they must be given notice of the reason for the denial and the opportunity to respond.
"While Defendants acknowledge Sherrill’s holding that White House reporters have protectable due process rights in their hard passes, Defendants respectfully submit that Sherill was wrongly decided and expressly reserve their right to argue this on appeal," lawyers for the Trump administration wrote.
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The filing also argued that the White House’s decision should stand, even under that ruling.
"But even under Sherrill, the President’s actions must be sustained because the President has "compelling interest[s]" in enforcing minimum standards for bona fide journalists and safeguarding national security information," the DOJ said.
CNN, MS NOW and Politico, which Trump banned from the White House last week, have filed a First Amendment lawsuit in a bid to restore their access.
Trump has accused outlets of reporting "fiction and lies" and has since launched his own round-the-clock video channel, dubbed "Trump TV: The Essentials Station."
How the White House Press Ban Unfolded
On September 19, Trump announced that CNN, MS NOW and Politico would no longer be allowed to enter the White House. Reporters from the outlets had their White House credentials disabled or taken away that same day, according to their complaint.
They sued on Monday alleging that Trump was "retaliating…for past news coverage because he deemed it ‘negative’ and chilling future reporting about him and his administration’s policies and actions," and called for "emergency order restoring access while the case proceeds."
"The ban inflicts an injury on all news media organizations—who now risk a similar fate if they engage in reporting the President deems insufficiently favorable," the filing said, "and the public at large suffers for however long the unconstitutional ban restricts access to current and complete information about their government. These irreparable harms should not be tolerated for a day longer."
The White House responded in the DOJ’s Tuesday filing, arguing that White House access is a privilege and that the outlets had failed to meet its standards of professionalism and decorum.
Both filings referenced the Sherrill v. Knight case with CNN, MS NOW and Politico arguing the White House ban breaks these rules, but the DOJ disagrees that the ruling was right in the first place, saying it may challenge the ruling on appeal.
The DOJ argues that White House access is "a privilege—not a right," that "there is no such due process or First Amendment right attaching to these credentials," and that the president should have greater discretion over press access.
It also insisted Trump’s actions are justified even under Sherrill, arguing that the ban is justified because the outlets failed its "minimum requirements of professionalism" and published sensitive national security information.
What Sherrill v. Knight Says About Press Access
The case was brought by Robert Sherrill, a Washington correspondent for the magazine The Nation 49 years ago, after the Secret Service denied him a White House press pass on security grounds but initially declined to tell him why.
At the time, a federal appeals court wrote that, with "White House press facilities having been made publicly available," the First Amendment "requires that this access not be denied arbitrarily or for less than compelling reasons."
The court found that a journalist’s interest in obtaining a pass "qualifies as liberty" protected by the Fifth Amendment’s guarantee of due process. It said that "notice, opportunity to rebut, and a written decision are required."
This due process requirement, to give what the DOJ describes as "advanced notice of prohibited conduct and of the consequences of noncompliance" before a press pass is revoked, is what it believes "should be overruled."
It is important to note that the Sherrill ruling did not require the White House to admit every journalist or grant every reporter an interview.
Why the DOJ Says Sherrill Was Wrong
The DOJ referenced a separate 2025 appeals court order from a different dispute involving The Associated Press (AP), in which the court said White House "may consider journalists’ viewpoints when deciding whether to grant access" to restricted presidential spaces such as the Oval Office.
It came after the White House restricted the AP’s access over its continued use of "Gulf of Mexico" rather than "Gulf of America," after Trump signed an executive order directing federal agencies to adopt the new name.
The 2025 order found that restricted spaces such as the Oval Office were "not any type of forum" and access was "tightly controlled and highly selective," giving the White House more discretion to choose which journalists could enter.
The DOJ argues that the same reasoning should apply to "all parts of the White House complex."
It goes on to argue that, even if the due process part of Sherrill is not overturned, the White House provided “sufficient post-deprivation process” by sending the outlets letters on September 22 and giving them until 5 p.m. on September 25 to “contest this initial decision.”
But the outlets say the letters, which accuse CNN of disclosing details about an East Wing bunker, Politico of publishing information about security improvements for the White House ballroom, and MS NOW of reporting on an alleged leak investigation, were sent before their passes had already been disabled and taken.
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Contact Newsweek editors on this story: John Fitzpatrick and James Debens
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