A federal judge has dealt another blow to the Trump administration’s efforts to limit press access at the Pentagon, ordering the Defense Department to temporarily stop requiring that New York Times journalists be escorted by an official at all times while inside the building.
U.S. District Judge Paul L. Friedman, based in Washington, determined that the escort policy runs afoul of the First Amendment. On Tuesday, he issued a preliminary ruling blocking the requirement while The New York Times pursues its ongoing legal challenge against the department’s press restrictions.
The ruling did not address whether journalists from news organizations other than the Times would receive the same relief from the escort requirement.
The Times filed its second lawsuit against the Defense Department in May — its second legal action in just five months. These court battles are part of a broader and growing conflict between the U.S. press and the Republican administration, playing out both in the courts and in public.
The newspaper welcomed the judge’s decision. Charlie Stadtlander, a spokesperson for the Times, said: “Today’s well-reasoned decision reaffirms the First Amendment rights of the press to cover the Pentagon without restrictions designed to prevent the public from knowing what the military is doing. The court recognized that the Pentagon’s hastily implemented new policy was a clear violation of the Constitution.”
Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell pushed back on the ruling in a post on X late Tuesday, writing that the department “strongly disagrees” with Friedman’s decision. “This ruling strips away reasonable security measures and will make it easier for sensitive and classified information to reach our adversaries,” Parnell wrote.
The Times originally took the Defense Department to court in December, challenging media access rules put in place by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. The escort policy was then introduced in March, following an earlier ruling by Friedman that had struck down those initial restrictions — a ruling in which he found that Times reporter Julian E. Barnes and the newspaper had had their rights violated.
The following month, Friedman found that the new escort policy also violated his March order. However, the escort requirement stayed in effect after an appeals court put part of Friedman’s ruling on hold while the government pursued its appeal. That appeals process is still ongoing.
The Times and several other news outlets left the Pentagon back in October rather than accept Hegseth’s access restrictions. Those organizations continue to report on the U.S. military from outside the building, while a new press corps approved by the Defense Department now occupies the Pentagon press space.
