WASHINGTON—The Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University today filed an amicus brief on behalf of 12 prominent constitutional scholars in a case brought by the Associated Press (AP) challenging the Trump administration’s decision to exclude its reporters from White House press briefings. The brief responds to a request by the court for amicus briefs addressing originalist research on the First Amendment. The brief explains that history supports the basic free speech principles raised in this case. 

“The White House explicitly banned the AP from participating in the press pool based on the administration’s disapproval of the news outlet’s editorial decisions,” said Katie Fallow, the Knight Institute’s deputy litigation director. “The Supreme Court has repeatedly confirmed that the government can’t deny Americans a source of information simply because it doesn't like what it has to say. This fundamental principle stretches back to the earliest understanding of the First Amendment.” 

Today’s brief argues that historical evidence from early American history about the meaning of the First Amendment supports “the two central First Amendment principles raised by this case: the principle that the government should not be permitted to restrict speech based on viewpoint, and the principle that the access by the press to report on the government serves a critical role in providing citizens with the political information they need to govern themselves.” The brief goes on to discuss debates among 18th and 19th century lawmakers reflecting these central principles.

“One of the animating principles of the First Amendment since its ratification has been that the government may not control the flow of information to the public by punishing members of the press when they report the news in a manner it dislikes,” said Professor Genevieve Lakier from the University of Chicago Law School. “It is the people, and the press as their agents, who are supposed to decide what news is fit to print. The government’s exclusion of the AP violates that core principle.”

Read today’s amicus brief here.

Earlier this month, the Knight First Amendment Institute filed another amicus brief in the case, urging the court to restore AP to the press pool. There it argued that the press pool is an expressive forum from which the government can’t constitutionally exclude news organizations based on their viewpoints. Read that brief here.

Read more about the case here.

A hearing on the AP’s request to preliminarily enjoin the White House’s ban is scheduled for tomorrow, March 27, 2025, at 9:30 a.m. ET before Judge Trevor N. McFadden.

The Knight Institute filed today’s brief on behalf of Genevieve Lakier (University of Chicago Law School); RonNell Anderson Jones (University of Utah College of Law); Jack M. Balkin (Yale Law School); Erin Carroll (Georgetown Law); Erwin Chemerinsky (University of California, Berkeley, School of Law); Heidi Kitrosser (Northwestern, Pritzker School of Law); Christina Koningisor (UC Law San Francisco); Michael W. McConnell (Stanford Law School); Robert Post (Yale Law School); Jacob M. Schriner-Briggs (Chicago-Kent College of Law); Geoffrey R. Stone (University of Chicago Law School); and Sonja R. West (University of Georgia School of Law).

Lawyers on the case include Fallow, Jameel Jaffer, and Alex Abdo for the Knight First Amendment Institute.

For more information, contact: Adriana Lamirande, adriana.lamirande@knightcolumbia.org