A federal judge on Monday denied a request by the Associated Press to restore full access for the news agency’s journalists after President Donald Trump’s administration barred them for continuing to refer to the Gulf of Mexico in coverage.
U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden, a Trump appointee, declined to immediately grant the AP’s request for a temporary injunction restoring its access to the Oval Office and Air Force One during a hearing in Washington federal court.
The AP sued three senior Trump aides on Friday, arguing that the decision to block its reporters from those locations violates the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment protections against government abridgment of speech by trying to dictate the language they use in reporting the news.