WASHINGTON—The Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University today filed an amicus brief in one of two cases brought by The New York Times challenging the Trump administration’s restrictions on journalists covering the Pentagon. The Knight Institute argues that the restrictions—which include limitations on journalists’ access to the building and their ability to ask questions of government officials—unconstitutionally interfere with independent reporting in a First Amendment–protected forum.

“Journalists covering the Pentagon play a crucial role in keeping Americans informed about the actions that the U.S. military and its leaders take in our name,” said Jake Karr, staff attorney at the Knight Institute. “These new restrictions represent a transparent attempt to cow independent, fact-based reporting and convert the Pentagon press corps into something more like a propaganda machine.”

Today’s brief argues that the government’s unprecedented restrictions violate the First Amendment’s public forum doctrine because they are impermissibly motivated by a desire to suppress critical journalism and because they undermine the very purpose of allowing journalists to access the Pentagon in the first place—to facilitate accurate and timely reporting on matters of war and peace that informs and serves the public. It urges the court to roll back these restrictions and restore the Pentagon press corps’ ability to gather and report the news without fear or favor.

“The administration is trying to prevent journalists from publishing reports about the military that it simply doesn’t like,” said Katie Fallow, deputy litigation director at the Knight Institute. “Especially in times of war, the public needs accurate, timely, and independently sourced information that only a free press can provide.”

The Department of Defense issued the interim policy that is the focus of this appeal following a ruling by the district court that the original policy restricting reporters’ access to the Pentagon was unconstitutional; the government has not challenged that ruling.

The Knight Institute filed a similar amicus brief earlier this month in a related case also challenging the interim policy.

Read today’s amicus brief here. 

Read more about the cases—New York Times v. Department of Defense (NYT I and II)—here. 

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

Today, the Knight Institute also announced that it will support CNN, MS NOW, and Politico in their lawsuit against the Trump administration’s White House press ban. Read more here.

For more information, contact: Lorraine Kenny, [email protected].