The New York Times sued the Defense Department over its press policy prohibiting journalists from soliciting any information not explicitly authorized for release by the government. In a complaint filed Thursday morning in federal district court in Washington, the Times alleged that the press rules violated the First Amendment’s guarantee of a free press and the newspaper’s due process rights under the Fifth Amendment.
“The policy is an attempt to exert control over reporting the government dislikes,” Charlie Stadtlander, a spokesperson for the Times, said in a statement. “The Times intends to vigorously defend against the violation of these rights, just as we have long done throughout administrations opposed to scrutiny and accountability.”
Julian E. Barnes, a national security reporter for the Times who handed in his Pentagon press credentials rather than sign the policy, was named as a plaintiff alongside the newspaper. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Sean Parnell, the Pentagon’s chief spokesman, were also named as defendants.
The Pentagon’s policy, which took effect in October and has been widely condemned by media organizations and press freedom groups, states that any reporter credentialed to cover the Pentagon in person must sign an agreement pledging not to solicit information — even unclassified material — that the government hasn’t expressly authorized for release.
“It shouldn’t be that the press pass becomes a shackle,” said a senior attorney at the New York Times, who along with another attorney on the case spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the lawsuit before it was filed. “The press pass should be a badge that allows you to do more, not less.”
In its lawsuit, the newspaper asks a federal judge to strike down parts of the policy that violate its constitutional rights. The Times retained Theodore J. Boutrous Jr. of Gibson Dunn, a prominent First Amendment lawyer, as outside counsel.
Dozens of reporters, including representatives of the Times, The Washington Post, CNN and Fox News, turned in their press badges rather than comply with the policy. Many walked out of the building together in October, some carrying out boxes of belongings from decades of reporting from within the Pentagon.
The lawyers representing the Times said they discussed litigation with other news organizations but ultimately decided to proceed on their own. They said they would welcome other outlets filing their own lawsuits or amicus briefs in the Times’s case.
In an Oct. 10 statement, The Times’s Washington bureau chief, Richard Stevenson, said the press policy “threatens to punish them for ordinary newsgathering protected by the First Amendment” and the paper would not sign it.
“The Pentagon’s press access policy is unlawful because it gives government officials unchecked power over who gets a credential and who doesn’t, something the First Amendment prohibits,” said Gabe Rottman, vice president of policy of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press. “We look forward to lending our voice in support of this suit.”
In a statement, the Pentagon Press Association said that it was encouraged by the Times’s effort to defend press freedom. “The Defense Department’s attempt to limit how credentialed reporters gather the news and what information they may publish is antithetical to a free and independent press and prohibited by the First Amendment,” the PPA wrote.
Weijia Jiang, president of the White House Correspondents’ Association, called the Times’s lawsuit “a necessary and vital step to ensure journalists can do their jobs.”
Lack of access to the Pentagon has not prevented reporters from landing consequential scoops, including The Post’s recent reporting on Hegseth’s Sept. 2 order to destroy a suspected drug boat in the Caribbean Sea, as well as a follow-up report from the Times.
Of the hundreds of journalists, photographers and support personnel who regularly covered the Defense Department, only 14 people initially signed the press policy. After the walkout, the Pentagon announced a new press corps consisting largely of right-wing media personalities and outlets, including the Gateway Pundit, the Post Millennial and Human Events — none of which had been regularly covering the Pentagon in person. Far-right activist Laura Loomer, a loyalist to President Donald Trump who has repeatedly criticized defense officials in his administration, was among those approved to cover the department.
The Pentagon held a news briefing for the newly credentialed media on Dec. 2, in which press secretary Kingsley Wilson roundly criticized the absent mainstream press. Among the questioners was former lawmaker Matt Gaetz, a One America News host who was briefly Trump’s attorney general nominee last year.
Pentagon chief spokesman Sean Parnell has defended the press policy, saying it represents “basic, common-sense guidelines to protect sensitive information as well as the protection of national security and the safety of all who work at the Pentagon.”
Spokespeople for the Pentagon, the White House and the Justice Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the lawsuit.
The Times’s suit is the latest example of long-standing tensions between the Trump administration and news organizations over press access. The case echoes previous challenges brought in Trump’s first term by Jim Acosta, then a CNN correspondent, and later Brian Karem, then with Playboy magazine. Both sued the government after their White House credentials were revoked and won them back.
Earlier this year, the Associated Press successfully sued to have some access restored after it was barred from certain White House events but a permanent appellate ruling is still pending. Most recently the White House prohibited reporters without permission from entering the West Wing corridor that houses top communications officials.
In a separate case, Trump personally sued the New York Times in federal court, alleging that its reporters defamed him in Times articles and a 2024 book by making what his lawyers called “malicious, defamatory, and disparaging” statements about his business achievements and the origins of his wealth.
That litigation, filed in Tampa, is ongoing. A Times spokesman previously said the lawsuit is meritless: “This is merely an attempt to stifle independent reporting and generate PR attention, but The New York Times will not be deterred by intimidation tactics.”
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