Trump's ban of three prominent news outlets from White House is in court

WASHINGTON — The extraordinary showdown between President Donald Trump and media outlets whose coverage he dislikes moved Wednesday to a courtroom in the nation’s capital, where a judge is hearing arguments on whether the president’s move banning three news organizations from White House grounds violates the Constitution. The administration has doubled down on its contention that it has the right to decide who can set foot in the White House. “Access to the White House is a privilege — not a right,” it said in a court filing late Tuesday. It also argued that the reporting of the three outlets — CNN, MS NOW and Politico — poses a threat to national security. In his early comments about the case, Trump focused not on national security but on negative coverage by the outlets and allegations of “fake news.” The proceedings are historic, said Katie Fallow, deputy litigation director at the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University. “No president has taken this explicit of a step” to ban entire news outlets because he doesn’t like their reporting, she sa