The Associated Press barred from the press pool over a style-guide choice

AP sued; the district court enjoined the exclusion on April 8, 2025, but on June 6, 2025 a divided D.C. Circuit panel stayed the injunction except as to the East Room, holding that the White House may choose, including on the basis of viewpoint, which journalists to admit to restricted spaces such as the Oval Office.

In February 2025, the White House barred Associated Press reporters from the press pool and Oval Office access after AP declined to adopt 'Gulf of America' in place of 'Gulf of Mexico' in its own style guide, a wire service's internal editorial choice about its own copy, not a factual dispute over any administration policy.

AP is one of the most widely relied-upon wire services in American journalism; its dispatches are used verbatim by thousands of other outlets. Conditioning access to the president on adopting the administration's preferred vocabulary in AP's own independent reporting is a direct, viewpoint-based condition on journalistic access.

AP sued on February 21, 2025. A district court entered a preliminary injunction on April 8, 2025, but on June 6, 2025 a D.C. Circuit panel, over a dissent, stayed it except as to the East Room, holding the White House likely to succeed because 'these restricted presidential spaces are not First Amendment fora opened for private speech and discussion.'

Documented

District court preliminary injunction 2025-04-08; D.C. Circuit stayed it except as to the East Room on 2025-06-06, finding the White House likely to succeed

2025-02 (ban imposed); preliminary injunction 2025-04-08; stayed by D.C. Circuit 2025-06-06