A federal judge on Thursday ordered the Pentagon to roll back its press restrictions, ruling that the Defense Department violated an earlier court directive to ease limits on reporters covering the building. US District Judge Paul Friedman again ruled in favor of the New York Times and reporter Julian Barnes, who sued last year claiming the Pentagon's media rules infringed on First Amendment and due process rights. Friedman already invalidated several of the Trump administration's tighter controls on journalists with Pentagon press credentials, which had prompted some outlets, including CBS News, to leave their offices there.
After that March ruling, the Pentagon issued revised rules that removed media office space from the building and required all reporters to be escorted by government personnel. Friedman found those changes unlawful as well, saying the department had effectively reinstated an improper policy despite the court's injunction. "The Department cannot simply reinstate an unlawful policy under the guise of taking 'new' action," he wrote. Friedman included what the Washington Post called "an unusually sharp rebuke of the Trump administration."
"The curtailment of First Amendment rights is dangerous at any time, and even more so in a time of war," the judge wrote. "Suppression of political speech is the mark of an autocracy, not a democracy—as the Framers recognized when they drafted the First Amendment." Friedman ordered a Pentagon official with direct knowledge to submit a sworn statement by April 16 detailing how the department is complying with the ruling.
,
uBlock 
,
and
Ghostery 
)
