US’ UN ambassador defends press ban as news outlets prepare legal challenges

US’ UN ambassador defends press ban as news outlets prepare legal challenges

First Amendment groups on Sunday rallied around the three news outlets banned by President Donald Trump, while one of the president’s appointees tried to defend the restriction.

CNN, MS NOW and Politico are preparing to take legal action, and many legal experts say they will prevail in court.

But Mike Waltz, Trump’s ambassador to the United Nations, argued otherwise in an appearance on CNN Sunday morning. Waltz was booked on CNN’s “State of the Union” before the ban was implemented.

“The president is absolutely within his rights to limit journalists to government facilities, particularly when, in his opinion, they’re not behaving as good-faith journalists. And that’s just not his opinion. That’s the Supreme Court’s opinion,” Waltz told anchor Dana Bash.

Waltz cited a 1965 Supreme Court ruling, Zemel v. Rusk, in which Chief Justice Earl Warren wrote that “the right to speak and publish does not carry with it the unrestrained right to gather information.”

But the current dispute centers on a First Amendment legal concept known as viewpoint discrimination, since Trump has been explicit about his reasons for wanting to ban certain outlets over coverage he deems “negative.”

Courts have forbid viewpoint discrimination and protected the rights of journalists in case after case.