A federal judge who ordered the Trump administration to stop blocking The Associated Press’ from presidential events refused Friday to take immediate steps to get White House officials to comply — an incremental development in a two-month dispute between the global news agency and administration officials over access.
The case, which has significant free-speech implications under the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment, centers on the government blocking AP’s access to cover events because the outlet won’t rename the Gulf of Mexico in its reports.
U.S. District Judge Trevor N. McFadden, who handed the AP a victory last week in its efforts to end the ban, said it’s too soon to say that Donald Trump is violating his order — as the AP suggests.
Fortunately it’s much harder to amend our constitution. It won’t happen, at least not legally, and there will be some sort of pushback.