The New York Times says it plans to sue the Pentagon, arguing that the Defense Department infringed on the constitutional rights of its journalists by imposing a set of new restrictions on reporting about the military.
The Pentagon policy “is exactly the type of speech- and press-restrictive scheme that the Supreme Court and D.C. Circuit have recognized violates the First Amendment,” the company said in a summary of the filing. The lawsuit will be filed on Thursday in U.S. District Court in Washington, The Times said.
The Pentagon rules, which went into effect in October, require reporters to sign a 21-page form that sets limits on journalistic activities, including requests for story tips and inquiries to sources. The new guidelines are a stark departure from the previous ones, in both length and scope.
According to the lawsuit summary, the purpose of the Pentagon policy is “to close the doors of the Pentagon — those areas that have historically been open to the press — to news organizations, like plaintiffs, that investigate and report without fear or favor about the actions of the department and its leadership.”
The Times is asking the court to issue an order stopping the Pentagon from enforcing the press policy, along with a declaration that the provisions relating to the exercise of First Amendment rights are unlawful.
In a statement, the company said it “intends to vigorously defend against the violation of these rights, just as we have long done throughout administrations opposed to scrutiny and accountability.”
Pentagon officials have said access to military facilities is a privilege subject to regulation. The policy “is about preventing leaks that damage operational security and national security,” a Pentagon statement said in October. “It’s common sense.”
The rules are the latest step in a monthslong effort by Pete Hegseth, the defense secretary, to curtail the access and privileges of the Pentagon press corps.
Mr. Hegseth arrived at the Pentagon in January after a bruising confirmation process that surfaced allegations of excessive drinking and sexual assault, which he said were untrue. Early in his tenure, Mr. Hegseth proposed evicting from the Pentagon a veteran reporter at NBC News who had contributed to some of the coverage.
The department later stripped several national news outlets of their workspaces in the Pentagon, offering them mostly to conservative outlets. Mr. Hegseth has also added limits on where reporters can roam in the complex.
A draft of the new restrictions first emerged in September, and was revised after pushback from lawyers representing news organizations. The final rules were released on Oct. 6, and more than a week later, dozens of credentialed journalists — including six from The Times — surrendered their badges instead of signing the document. The departing outlets have continued reporting on the military despite the access limits.
Many major news organizations released statements in October condemning the Pentagon policy as an incursion on the First Amendment. “The policy is without precedent and threatens core journalistic protections,” said a statement from ABC News, CBS News, CNN, Fox News and NBC News.
In a press briefing on Wednesday, a senior Times lawyer said that there had been discussions with other news organizations about joining the suit but that the newspaper had decided to proceed alone.
According to the summary provided by The Times, the suit takes issue with multiple provisions of the new policy, including one governing instances in which reporters “solicit government employees to violate the law by providing confidential government information.” Such a restriction, according to the summary, threatens “lawful, routine news gathering techniques.”
Legal clashes between journalists and the government over access to federal buildings have arisen repeatedly across President Trump’s two terms.
During Mr. Trump’s first administration, the White House pulled the press passes of two White House correspondents. The journalists regained those passes after litigation. This year, The Associated Press sued the government after being excluded from White House press pool events in cramped spaces such as the Oval Office; litigation challenging that move is ongoing.
In each of those cases, the government targeted one journalist or outlet for punishment. The Pentagon restrictions, on the other hand, seek to bind an entire press corps.
After the departure of the legacy press corps, the Pentagon announced that a new group of outlets had agreed to the restrictions and would work from the press space in the building. The new arrivals feature an array of pro-Trump outlets that have echoed administration talking points and show little inclination to investigate its actions.
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