Judge Kelly Grants 14-Day TRO Ordering Restoration of CNN, Politico, MS NOW Press Passes; White House Initially Non-Compliant

In the early hours of September 24, 2026, Judge Timothy J. Kelly signed a Temporary Restraining Order (docket entry 24) in Cable News Network, Inc. v. Trump, 1:26-cv-03287 (D.D.C.), ordering defendants — “except for President Trump” — and their agents to restore White House hard-pass credentials “held by employees of CNN, MS NOW, and POLITICO that were revoked on or about September 18, 2026, until further Order of the Court or the expiration of this Temporary Restraining Order.” Kelly stated the TRO would remain in effect for 14 days (i.e., through on or about October 8, 2026).

DOJ’s legal theory, and why the court rejected it

Per Kelly’s opinion (quoted at length by the Volokh Conspiracy), plaintiffs showed a likelihood of success on their Fifth Amendment procedural due process claim: Sherrill v. Knight (D.C. Cir. 1977) holds that a bona fide White House correspondent’s interest in a press pass is a protected liberty interest, and Karem v. Trump (D.C. Cir. 2020) holds “a duly issued hard pass may not be suspended without due process,” including advance, formally articulated standards for what conduct triggers revocation and its severity. Defendants did not dispute plaintiffs received no notice or hearing before revocation.

DOJ’s defense — first raised in its September 22 response (see 2026-09-22–doj-cites-national-security-cnn-politico-msnow-ban) — was that post-deprivation process can suffice in “extraordinary circumstances,” and that safeguarding national security supplied such circumstances. Kelly rejected this on the facts: “The Court is skeptical — at least on this record — that Defendants’ interest in safeguarding national security is the actual motivation for, or is even advanced by, the revocation of Plaintiffs’ hard passes.” He found (1) nothing predating the suit tied the revocations to national security — Trump’s own September 18 announcement cited “cumulative stories” and “negativity,” not security; (2) the September 22 letters to outlets, framing the reporting as having “threatened national security and/or spread falsehoods,” were ambiguous enough to leave open that all identified stories fell into the “falsehoods” (i.e., content-based) bucket rather than genuine security harm; and (3) DOJ offered no declarations, classified or unclassified, showing any identified story actually damaged national security or that reinstatement pending litigation would endanger it. Plaintiffs’ supplemental declarations further showed several reporters named in DOJ’s letters had not authored the stories cited against them.

White House initially defied the order, then complied

Hours after the TRO issued, Politico reported its reporter — along with CNN’s and MS NOW’s — was again denied entry and had credentials confiscated by the Secret Service. Plaintiffs filed a Notice of Defendants’ Non-Compliance with Temporary Restraining Order and Request for Immediate Hearing (docket entries 25-26) the same day. Kelly ordered defendants to respond by 12:30 p.m.; after a defense declaration (from Micah Stopperich, docket entry 28, after an erroneous first filing at entry 27), Kelly denied the request for an emergency hearing but allowed plaintiffs to file supplemental factual notices no earlier than 6:00 p.m. that day. Reuters and NBC News reported the White House restored access around midday/noon Thursday, roughly a week after the initial ban.

Preliminary-injunction schedule set

By the same day’s minute order, Kelly set an expedited briefing schedule: plaintiffs’ motion for a preliminary injunction due September 28, 2026; defendants’ response due October 2, 2026; plaintiffs’ reply due October 5, 2026. The court stated it would “set a hearing at a later date but intends to rule expeditiously” — no preliminary-injunction hearing date had been set as of this entry (September 28, 2026).

Sourcing note. The TRO’s substantive holding and reasoning are drawn from Judge Kelly’s own opinion, quoted extensively (and independently corroborated by CNBC’s separate quotations of the same passages) by the Volokh Conspiracy — treated here as a tier-1 primary-adjacent source because it reproduces the court’s language verbatim rather than characterizing it. Docket mechanics (non-compliance notice, PI schedule) are from CourtListener/RECAP. The White House’s initial non-compliance and subsequent restoration of access are corroborated by Reuters, JURIST, NBC News and the New York Times.

Research Gaps

• Full text of the TRO order (docket #24, PDF) not yet retrieved verbatim — current sourcing relies on secondary quotation of the opinion; a direct RECAP/PACER pull would confirm exact wording and any footnotes not quoted by Volokh/CNBC.
• Whether Trump’s stated intent to appeal (per social-media post quoted by JURIST) resulted in a notice of appeal to the D.C. Circuit — not found on the docket as of September 28, 2026.
• No preliminary-injunction hearing date has been set; monitor the docket after the October 2/5 briefing deadlines.

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