A federal judge pressed a Trump administration official Monday in an appeal case involving The Associated Press refusing to call the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America.
AP sued the government after it banned its journalists from covering events at the White House, and in a new circuit court panel in Washington, D.C., a Trump official responded to questions from a judge about who can visit the White House, The Washington Post reported.
Jacob M. Roth, the Justice Department’s attorney, said the president can use “broad discretion to pick whom he wants to invite into the Oval Office and onto Air Force One.”
AP reporters still have access to the White House press briefing room, but other locations and events are restricted.
“During a nearly 40-minute questioning before the panel, Judge Robert L. Wilkins pressed Roth on whether the president is ever bound by First Amendment principles, which largely prohibit viewpoint discrimination and retaliation for political speech, in the Oval Office,” The Post reported.
Wilkins, who was appointed by former President Barack Obama, asked if “the president could exclude a family from Kansas visiting the White House if he discovered that a family member disagreed with him in social media posts.”
Roth argued it would be within the president’s right to do that.
“Woe to the public,” Wilkins responded.
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