Judge strikes down restrictive Pentagon press policy, finding it violates First Amendment
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A federal judge has struck down some of the Defense Department's strict controls on how journalists with access to the Pentagon are allowed to report — ending a policy that caused many news outlets to leave the Pentagon.
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Politics Judge strikes down restrictive Pentagon press policy, finding it violates First Amendment By Jacob Rosen , Jacob Rosen Justice Department Reporter Jake Rosen is a reporter covering the Department of Justice. He was previously a campaign digital reporter covering President Trump's 2024 campaign and also served as an associate producer for "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan." Read Full Bio Jacob Rosen , Joe Walsh Joe Walsh Senior Editor, Politics Joe Walsh is a senior editor for digital politics at CBS News. Joe previously covered breaking news for Forbes and local news in Boston. Read Full Bio Joe Walsh March 20, 2026 / 6:41 PM EDT / CBS News Add CBS News on Google A federal judge has struck down some of the Defense Department's strict controls on how journalists with access to the Pentagon are allowed to report — ending a policy that caused many news outlets to leave the Pentagon. U.S. District Judge Paul L. Friedman sided with the New York Times and a reporter at the newspaper, Julian E. Barnes, who sued in December, arguing the new Pentagon policy violated the First Amendment, Fifth Amendment and due process provision of the Constitution. The Pentagon rolled out its new press access policy last fall, requiring credentialed reporters to sign onto a host of restrictions in order to maintain daily access to the building. Many media organizations — including CBS News, ABC News, NBC News, CNN and Fox News — declined to sign the new rules and stopped working out of the Pentagon on a day-to-day basis. The Pentagon's in-house press corps is now mostly made up of conservative media outlets that agreed to sign. Friedman's ruling halts some of the restrictions that news outlets objected the most strenuously to, including one section that suggested reporters who "solicit" classified or sensitive information from military personnel could be deemed a security risk and barred from the building. He also struck down a section that referred to Pentagon access as a "pri...
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