NEW YORK – U.S. President Donald Trump’s move to ban several news outlets from the White House over his dislike of their coverage likely runs afoul of U.S. legal prohibitions against viewpoint discrimination by the government, according to four legal experts.
Trump’s announcement on Friday that he would ban CNN, MS NOW and Politico for reporting what he deemed “FAKE NEWS” was the latest move by his administration to curtail press access, part of the Republican president’s wider pressure campaign against news coverage he dislikes. Trump said on Saturday that he might ban other outlets as well.
The president’s justification for the ban could be its undoing in a legal challenge because U.S. courts have long held that the government cannot condition press access on favorable coverage once it has opened a space to the media, according to legal experts.
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