A federal judge told the White House exactly what it had to do.
Immediately restore press access to CNN, MS NOW and Politico.
Hours later, journalists from all three organizations were still being turned away at the gates.
The extraordinary confrontation unfolded Thursday morning after U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly issued a temporary restraining order blocking President Donald Trump's ban on the three news organizations.
Kelly's order wasn't ambiguous.
The administration was directed to “immediately return, reinstate, and restore” the White House hard-pass credentials belonging to employees of CNN, MS NOW and Politico.
Instead, reporters arrived at the White House Thursday morning and discovered their credentials still didn't work.
Some had their passes confiscated.
The three news organizations quickly returned to court.
A Direct Court Order
Trump announced the ban against CNN, MS NOW and Politico on September 18 after repeatedly attacking their coverage as dishonest.
The White House subsequently revoked the outlets' credentials and prevented their journalists from entering the White House grounds.
The organizations sued.
Their case landed before Kelly, a federal judge appointed by Trump in 2017.
Early Thursday morning, Kelly sided with the news organizations—at least temporarily.
He concluded that they were likely to succeed in arguing that the administration violated their constitutional due-process rights when it stripped away their access.
Kelly also expressed skepticism about the White House's claim that national security justified the decision.
The judge noted that Trump's own statements announcing the ban focused on what the president considered negative or inaccurate reporting rather than national security.
Kelly ordered the administration to restore the credentials immediately.
The temporary restraining order was scheduled to remain in effect for 14 days while the larger lawsuit continued.
Then the Reporters Went Back
CNN, MS NOW and Politico journalists attempted to return to the White House Thursday morning.
They were turned away.
MS NOW correspondent Laura Barrón-López described getting through the first security perimeter before reaching the press entrance.
She tapped her credential as usual.
It flashed red.
A Secret Service officer checked it.
She still couldn't enter.
Politico reported that one of its journalists was denied entry and had his credential confiscated.
CNN said a reporter and photojournalist were also prevented fr