The Associated Press sued three Trump administration officials Friday over access to presidential events, citing freedom of speech in asking a federal judge to stop the 10-day blocking of its journalists.
The lawsuit was filed Friday afternoon in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C.
The AP says its case is about an unconstitutional effort by the White House to control speech — in this case refusing to change its style from the Gulf of Mexico to the “Gulf of America,” as President Donald Trump did last month with an executive order.
“The press and all people in the United States have the right to choose their own words and not be retaliated against by the government,” the AP said in its lawsuit, which names White House chief of staff Susan Wiles, deputy chief of staff Taylor Budowich and press secretary Karoline Leavitt.
“This targeted attack on the AP’s editorial independence and ability to gather and report the news strikes at the very core of the First Amendment,” the news agency said. “This court should remedy it immediately.”
In stopping the AP from attending media events at the White House and Mar-a-Lago, or flying on Air Force One in the agency’s customary spot, the Trump team directly cited the AP’s decision not to fully follow the president’s renaming.
“We’re going to keep them out until such time as they agree that it’s the Gulf of America,” Trump said Tuesday.
This week, about 40 news organizations signed a letter organized by the White House Correspondents Association, urging the White House to reverse its policy against the AP.
On Feb. 9, en route to the Super Bowl in New Orleans, Trump signed a proclamation declaring it “Gulf of America Day.”
Two days later, the White House blocked an Associated Press reporter from an event in the Oval Office after demanding the news agency alter its style on the Gulf of Mexico, which President Donald Trump has ordered renamed the Gulf of America.
The reporter, whom the AP would not identify, tried to enter the White House event as usual that afternoon and was turned away. The highly unusual ban, which Trump administration officials had threatened earlier Tuesday unless the AP changed the style on the Gulf, could have constitutional free-speech implications.
At the time, Julie Pace, senior vice president and executive editor of The Associated Press, called the administration’s move unacceptable.
“It is alarming that the Trump administration would punish AP for its independent journalism,” Pace said in a statement. “Limiting our access to the Oval Office based on the content of AP’s speech not only severely impedes the public’s access to independent news, it plainly violates the First Amendment.”
The Trump administration made no immediate announcements about the move, and there was no indication any other journalists were affected. Trump has long had an adversarial relationship with the media. On Feb. 7, the administration ejected a second group of news organizations from Pentagon office space.
Before his Jan. 20 inauguration, Trump announced plans to change the Gulf of Mexico’s name to the “Gulf of America” — and signed an executive order to do so as soon as he was in office. Mexico’s president responded sarcastically and others noted that the name change would probably not affect global usage.
Besides the United States, the body of water — named the Gulf of Mexico for more than 400 years — also borders Mexico.
The AP said last month, three days after Trump’s inauguration, that it would continue to refer to the Gulf of Mexico while noting Trump’s decision to rename it as well. As a global news agency that disseminates news around the world, the AP says it must ensure that place names and geography are easily recognizable to all audiences.
AP style is used not only by the agency, but also news organizations around the globe. . The AP Stylebook is relied on by thousands of journalists and other writers globally.