The Pentagon Replaced Reporters With Loyalists. A Judge Just Reversed It.
The big picture: A federal judge ruled Friday that the Pentagon’s press credentialing policy is unconstitutional, ordering the restoration of press passes for New York Times journalists and striking down provisions that empowered the Defense Department to punish reporters for standard newsgathering.
Why it matters: The ruling came during an active war in Iran, with the judge writing that the conflict made it “more important than ever that the public have access to information from a variety of perspectives about what its government is doing.”
What happened: In October, the Pentagon introduced a policy allowing it to revoke credentials from any journalist who solicited information the department didn’t explicitly authorize for release, even if unclassified. It also allowed the Pentagon to declare journalists “security risks.”
Dozens of reporters from the Times, the Post, the AP, and other outlets refused to sign and surrendered their press passes. The Pentagon then credentialed a new group, mostly pro-Trump commentators and influencers, including Laura Loomer, Jack Posobiec, and former congressman Matt Gaetz.
The ruling: Judge Paul Friedman of the U.S. District Court for D.C. sided with the Times, ruling the policy violates the First and Fifth Amendments. He wrote that it “fails to provide fair notice of what routine, lawful journalistic practices” could cost a reporter their credentials and “makes any newsgathering and reporting not blessed by the Department a potential basis” for losing access.
The line everyone’s talking about: The government argued in court that a public tip request from Laura Loomer was acceptable under the policy, but the same type of request from the Washington Post was not. The judge’s response:
“The Court is unpersuaded that there is any distinction between The Washington Post’s tip line and Ms. Loomer’s, other than that The Washington Post’s motto is ‘Democracy Dies in Darkness,’ while Ms. Loomer’s apparently is willingness to ‘serve the commander in chief.’”
What’s next: The Pentagon and DOJ haven’t commented. It’s unclear whether they’ll appeal. At a hearing earlier this month, the DOJ asked the court to send the rules back to the Pentagon for refining rather than vacate them. The judge went further.
By the numbers:
7 — Times journalists whose press passes must be restored
0 — major mainstream outlets that signed the Pentagon’s new policy
3 — notable pro-Trump figures who did sign (Loomer, Posobiec, Gaetz)
The bottom line: The Pentagon tried to control which journalists could cover the military during a war. A federal judge said the Constitution doesn’t allow that. The question now is whether the administration accepts the ruling or fights it, which will tell you everything about how seriously they take press freedom when it’s inconvenient.
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