Judge temporarily overturns Trump's White House media ban

A judge has ordered the White House to immediately reinstate press access for three news organisations barred from the building last week by US President Donald Trump.

A District of Columbia court issued a temporary restraining order against the ban, meaning CNN, MS NOW and Politico must have their access restored for 14 days.

The three outlets had launched a legal challenge which called the ban unconstitutional after their reporters had their hard passes for the White House confiscated and were denied access.

The Trump administration sought to defend the move in court, accusing the outlets of publishing false information and threatening national security - an argument the court rejected.

The White House is yet to comment on the ruling, and lawyers acting for the president may choose to take further legal action.

Judge Timothy Kelly ruled CNN, Politico and MS NOW were "likely to succeed" in showing the White House had not exercised "adequate due process" in implementing the ban.

He also cast doubt on the Trump administration's arguments that the bans were motivated by national security concerns, pointing out the president made no mention of that in his initial announcement.

The ruling continued: "The record lacks factual support for Defendants' contention that the revocation of Plaintiffs' hard passes will in fact protect national security or that national security will be endangered if the Court orders their passes reinstated while this litigation proceeds."

In its defence of the ban, the Trump administration cited a number of articles published by the outlets, including some about construction at the White House, including work on a new ballroom.

The judge said that "in most cases" the stories the White House took issue with were written by journalists who "did not even hold card passes" - and in the remaining cases, the Trump administration did not demonstrate "reason to believe that the reporter's possession of the hard pass was integral to the stories identified".

In its original filing, the Trump administration cited declarations from defence department officials supporting the ban - but the judge said they had "no direct knowledge of how reporters operate in the White House, or about any of the facts at issue here".