The Associated Press filed a lawsuit on Friday against top White House officials, accusing them of violating the First and Fifth Amendments by denying A.P. reporters access in retaliation for references to the Gulf of Mexico in its articles.
The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. It named as defendants Taylor Budowich, the White House deputy chief of staff; Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary; and Susie Wiles, the White House chief of staff.
In the complaint, The A.P. said that the White House had ordered it to use certain words in its reporting and that it was suing “to vindicate its rights to the editorial independence guaranteed by the United States Constitution and to prevent the executive branch from coercing journalists to report the news using only government-approved language.”
The lawsuit centers on The A.P.’s decision to continue referring to the Gulf of Mexico in its articles, rather than the Gulf of America, as the body of water was decreed by President Trump in an executive order on Jan. 20.
The White House did not immediately return a request for comment.
According to the lawsuit, The A.P.’s chief White House correspondent, Zeke Miller, was informed by Ms. Leavitt, the White House press secretary, on Feb. 11 that at President Trump’s direction, The A.P. would be barred from certain areas of the White House as a member of the press pool unless the organization used the Gulf of America term.
The complaint noted that The A.P., which was founded in 1846, had been a member of the White House press pool since its inception. The press pool is formed by a rotating group of journalists who travel with the president.
The A.P. issued editorial guidance about the Gulf of Mexico in a post on its website last month. It said the organization would continue to refer to the body of water “by its original name while acknowledging the new name Trump has chosen” because it was an international news source and because the executive order carried authority only within the United States. Other outlets with international readership, including The New York Times, have also continued to refer to the Gulf of Mexico.
A.P. journalists have been barred from attending a number of press events, including the signing of an executive order by Mr. Trump. On Feb. 14, Mr. Budowich, the deputy chief of staff, announced in a post on X that The A.P. would be indefinitely blocked from spaces like the Oval Office and Air Force One, though the outlet would still have credentials for the White House complex.
On Tuesday, Ms. Wiles, the chief of staff, emailed The A.P., saying that the White House had taken action against it because its stylebook “is used by many as a standard of writing and editing” and that “influence” had been “misused, and at times weaponized, to push a divisive and partisan agenda,” according to the complaint. Ms. Wiles said they “remain hopeful” that the name would be updated in the stylebook to Gulf of America, the complaint said.
Julie Pace, the executive editor of The A.P., traveled to Florida to meet with Ms. Wiles on Wednesday and was informed that Ms. Wiles would discuss the matter with Mr. Trump, but Ms. Pace had yet to hear back, the complaint said.
The A.P. said in the lawsuit that its reporters and photographers remained barred from a number of locations accessible to members of the press pool and other journalists with White House press credentials.
“The White House has never before attempted to bar an entire news organization from membership in the press pool and from accessing those spaces open to other members of the pool,” the lawsuit said.
The A.P. asked the court to order the government to immediately restore its access. It said the ban violated the due process clause of the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution, as well as the First Amendment, which recognizes the right to freedom of speech.
The legal action comes after an escalating standoff between The A.P. and the White House. The Trump administration’s stance has generated a significant amount of backlash from other media organizations and freedom of the press supporters. On Monday, a group of 40 major media outlets, including CNN, Fox News, The Times and The Washington Post, sent a letter to the White House in support of The A.P.
“The First Amendment prohibits the government from asserting control over how news organizations make editorial decisions,” the letter said. “Any attempt to punish journalists for those decisions is a serious breach of this constitutional protection.”
