Federal Judges

Federal Judge Throws Shade At Donald Trump In An Unrelated Decision

We see you Judge Oetken.

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Judge J. Paul Oetken

Judge J. Paul Oetken

“[O]nce there is a public function, public comment, and participation by some of the media, the First Amendment requires equal access to all of the media or the rights of the First Amendment would no longer be tenable.” For example, it has been held impermissible to exclude a single television news network from live coverage of mayoral candidates’ headquarters and to withhold White House press passes in a content-based or arbitrary fashion. Equal press access is critical because “[e]xclusion of an individual reporter . . . carries with it ‘the danger that granting favorable treatment to certain members of the media allows the government to influence the type of substantive media coverage that public events will receive,’which effectively harms the public.” Courts thus recognize that equal access of the press is necessary in order to prevent government officials from “affect[ing] the content or tenor of the news by choreographing which news organizations have access to relevant information.”

— Judge J. Paul Oetken in Nicholas v. City of New York, denying a motion to dismiss a claim for the allegedly retaliatory revocation of press credentials (citations omitted). But notice the line about White House press passes? Yeah, we see you Judge Oetken. Props. That’s probably just as far as an Article III judge dares to comment on current events, but it hasn’t gone unnoticed.

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