{"id":40011,"date":"2025-03-05T13:45:55","date_gmt":"2025-03-05T21:45:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=40011"},"modified":"2025-03-05T13:45:56","modified_gmt":"2025-03-05T21:45:56","slug":"will-trumps-press-takeover-help-his-ap-lawsuit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2025\/03\/05\/will-trumps-press-takeover-help-his-ap-lawsuit\/","title":{"rendered":"Will Trump\u2019s Press Takeover Help His AP Lawsuit?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

by\u00a0Stephen Kaus<\/a>\u00a0on\u00a0March 3, 2025 (BeyondChron.org)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

AP Case Draws Trump-Appointed Judge<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By seizing control of the White House press pool from the White House Correspondents\u2019 Association (WHCA), President Donald Trump gained control of which reporters can ask him questions. Less reported is that his move may help him defeat the Associated Press lawsuit to regain its access to the White House.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because the Associated Press continues to use Gulf of Mexico and not Trump\u2019s Gulf of America, the president cut off AP\u2019s access to the White House Press Office, the Oval Office and Air Force One. Associated Press sued, claiming free speech and due process violations. The case drew Trump-appointed Judge Trevor McFadden.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although Judge McFadden did not issue a temporary restraining order at the initial hearing on February 24, 2025, he felt it would be \u201cviewpoint discrimination\u201d to use AP\u2019s choice of words to exclude it from the press pool. \u201cThe White House has accepted the correspondents\u2019 association to be the referee here, and has just discriminated against one organization. That does seem problematic,\u201d he said from the bench.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The judge noted that the correspondents\u2019 group had been tasked by the White House to choose the members of its pool. He suggested that under those circumstances it was questionable if AP could be excluded for its manner of expression.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

McFadden also said that he found it strange that an outside organization and not the White House chooses the press pool, even though that has long been the case. He asked whether Trump is bound \u201cby what happened with President McKinley?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt feels a little odd, he continued, \u201cthat the White House is somehow bound by the decisions organizations make as to who can and cannot come into the Oval Office,\u201d and he suggested that \u201cthe White House could decide to throw out the White House Correspondents Association altogether.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finally, McFadden warned the White House that previous cases on excluding reporters was \u201cuniformly unhelpful to the White House.\u201d The administration might \u201cthink about whether what they\u2019re doing is really appropriate given the case law.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They did not think long. The next day, the Trump administration took over the task of picking the press pool from the WHCA. This allowed the White House to select, authoritarian style, which news organizations would participate in close coverage and distribute the news to others. It is no surprise that AP is not included.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The move also may have strengthened the defense to the AP suit. The administration would not be rejecting a choice by another organization, but rather selecting a new pool, which they would claim was discretionary and not selected due to AP\u2019s choice of words.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before a more sympathetic judge or, ultimately, Supreme Court, AP\u2019s argument would still stand.  AP\u2019s displacement is obviously because of its continued use of \u201cGulf of Mexico,\u201d a choice it explains in its Complaint<\/a> is because the global dissemination of its news accounts requires that it \u201censure that place names and geography are easily recognizable to all audiences.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Judge McFadden should see through this White House charade. After all,  on February 14th the White House tweeted that because the AP had not complied with its demand to use \u201cGulf of America,\u201d it was banned from \u201caccess to limited spaces, like the Oval Office and Air Force One.\u201d On February 18th<\/sup>, Trump Chief of Staff Susan Wiles wrote that the ban was because AP\u2019s Stylebook, which contains the \u201cGulf of Mexico\u2019 verbiage, \u201cis used by many as a standard for writing and editing,\u201d and that it \u201cadvises journalists, scholars and classrooms around our country.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Donald Trump\u2019s agenda is clear: \u201c[w]e\u2019re going to keep them out until such time that they agree that it\u2019s the Gulf of America\u201d and that the AP \u201chas been very, very wrong on the election, on Trump and the treatment of Trump.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No other explanation is tenable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now the government will reverse course and tell the judge that speech did not motivate AP\u2019s removal. That it\u2019s simply to give others a chance. Will Judge McFadden, a former police officer and Department of Justice lawyer, buy it? He has ruled for Trump in several cases and has a mixed record on January 6 prosecutions. He should not let Trump deny the obvious, but the smart bet would be that he will rule for Trump and against AP.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As of last Tuesday, the pool consisted of three wire service reporters (AP, Reuters and Bloomberg), two print or online reporters, a radio reporter; four photographers; and a television crew. On Wednesday, the administration added Newsmax and the Blaze, both strongly pro-Trump sites, to the pool as well as Axios, a legitimate news organization. Reuters was removed along with AP.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump Litigation Update: San Francisco Federal Judge Orders Halt to Firing of Probationary Employees.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

San Francisco Federal Judge William Alsup is a man who is sure of his beliefs and who does not suffer fools. Late last Thursday afternoon, Judge Alsup, a Clinton appointee, held<\/a> that the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), \u201cdoes not have any authority whatsoever, under any statute in the history of the universe,\u201d to hire or fire any employees from other departments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Judge Alsup issued an order that the OPM should inform the departments of the workers represented by the non-profits and unions who are plaintiffs in the case, including the Pentagon, that terminations scheduled for last Friday should not proceed. He added, \u201cI am going to count on the government to do the right thing, and to go a little bit further than I have ordered, and to let some of these agencies know what I have ruled.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Judge Alsup\u2019s take on the issue contradicted at least two other cases out of the 93 that have been filed to try and prevent Trump\u2019s actions. Christopher Cooper, an Obama appointed judge in Washington D.C. ruled<\/a> that he had no jurisdiction over an employment dispute and that terminated employees had to seek relief from the Federal Labor Relations Authority (\u201cFLRA\u201d) under the Federal Service Labor-Management Relations Statute. Judge Cooper acknowledged that \u201c[t]he first month of President Trump\u2019s second administration has been defined by an onslaught of executive actions that have caused, some say by design, disruption and even chaos in widespread quarters of American society.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also, Massachusetts U.S. District Judge George O\u2019Toole Jr., a Clinton appointee, ruled<\/a> that unions did not have standing to contest their members\u2019 termination.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stephen Kaus is a retired Alameda County Superior Court Judge. @stephenkaus on X. @stephenkaus.bsky.social on Bluesky.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by\u00a0Stephen Kaus\u00a0on\u00a0March 3, 2025 (BeyondChron.org) AP Case Draws Trump-Appointed Judge By seizing control of the White House press pool from the White House Correspondents\u2019 Association (WHCA), President Donald Trump gained control of which reporters can ask him questions. Less reported is that his move may help him defeat the Associated… Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40011"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40011"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40011\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40012,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40011\/revisions\/40012"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40011"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40011"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40011"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}