{"id":20327,"date":"2026-03-21T06:22:14","date_gmt":"2026-03-21T06:22:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/judge-rules-pentagon-press-policy-unconstitutional\/"},"modified":"2026-03-21T06:22:14","modified_gmt":"2026-03-21T06:22:14","slug":"judge-rules-pentagon-press-policy-unconstitutional","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/judge-rules-pentagon-press-policy-unconstitutional\/","title":{"rendered":"Judge rules Pentagon press policy unconstitutional"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A federal judge ruled Friday that the Pentagon’s restrictive press access policy<\/a>is unlawful and ordered the Department of Defense to reinstate press credentials for affected journalists.<\/p>\n

In its ruling<\/a>the U.S. District Court for Washington, D.C., found that the policy — which allowed officials to revoke credentials from reporters who sought or published unauthorized information — violated the First Amendment and granted the government overly broad authority to control access to the press corps.<\/p>\n

“A primary purpose of the First Amendment is to enable the press to publish what it will and the public to read what it chooses, free of any official proscription,” U.S. District Judge Paul Friedman said in the opinion.<\/p>\n

“Those who drafted the First Amendment believed that the nation’s security requires a free press and an informed people and that such security is endangered by governmental suppression of political speech. It must not be abandoned now,” he said.<\/p>\n

The New York Times<\/a>had previously legally challenged the policy, arguing it violates its First Amendment and due process.<\/p>\n

The policy<\/a>introduced last year under Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, required reporters covering the Pentagon to agree not to obtain or report on information that had not been officially cleared for release — even if the material was unclassified. Critics argued the rules amounted to censorship and would punish routine news-gathering practices.<\/p>\n

Under the guidelines, journalists risked losing credentials for conduct deemed a security risk, including attempts to access nonpublic information, a provision that alarmed major news organizations and press freedom groups.<\/p>\n

Nearly every major U.S. news outlet, including Fox News, refused to sign the policy<\/a>when it was introduced, with many forfeiting their Pentagon credentials in protest.<\/p>\n

In Friday’s decision, Friedman sided with media organizations that argued the policy imposed unconstitutional conditions on access. He said the policy also violated the Fifth Amendment because “it provides no way for journalists to know how they may do their jobs without losing their credentials.”<\/p>\n

Friedman emphasized that amid the U.S.’ recent military actions in Venezuela and the ongoing war with Iran, it is critical to ensure the public has access to a broad range of information to allow Americans to support or oppose policies and make informed decisions.<\/p>\n

“It is more important than ever that the public have access to information from a variety of perspectives about what its government is doing,” Friedman said.<\/p>\n

The Pentagon said in a statement<\/a> on Friday it plans to appeal the decision.<\/p>\n

“We disagree with the decision and are pursuing an immediate appeal,” DOD spokesperson Sean Parnell said.<\/p>\n

The ruling marks the latest legal setback for the Pentagon’s efforts to tighten control over media access, which had already drawn widespread criticism from press freedom groups.<\/p>\n

“The judge was right to see the Pentagon’s outrageous censorship for what it is, but this wasn’t exactly a close call,” the Freedom of the Press Foundation said in a statement<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The National Press Club said<\/a> the ruling “affirmed what should be beyond dispute.”<\/p>\n

“The government cannot pick and choose which journalists are allowed to cover it or deny access based on their reporting — a core First Amendment protection,” said NPC President Mark Schoeff.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Ebony Davis is a breaking news reporter for MS NOW based in Washington, D.C. She previously worked at BLN as a campaign reporter covering elections and politics.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n

Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mar. 20, 2026, 9:23 PM EDT A federal judge ruled Friday that the Pentagon’s restrictive press access policyis unlawful and ordered the Department of Defense to reinstate press credentials for affected journalists. In its rulingthe U.S. District Court for Washington, D.C., found that the policy — which allowed officials to revoke credentials from reporters who sought or […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":20328,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20327","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-trump"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20327","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20327"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20327\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20328"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20327"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20327"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20327"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}