A US judge ruled on Thursday that the Pentagon is defying a court order requiring it to restore access for credentialed reporters to the Defense Department.
US District Judge Paul Friedman said the Pentagon must comply with his earlier order and reinstate reporters’ access. The dispute stems from an October 2025 policy under Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth that allowed the department to revoke press badges for journalists deemed security risks if they solicited unauthorized military personnel to disclose classified — and in some cases unclassified — information.
Only one of the Pentagon Press Association’s 56 member news outlets signed an acknowledgment of the new policy; the rest surrendered their press passes and were forced to report from outside the facility. The New York Times led a lawsuit challenging the policy. On March 20 Friedman ruled in the journalists’ favor, finding the policy violated protections for news gathering and due process under the US Constitution, and ordered immediate restoration of access.
After that decision, the Pentagon issued an “interim” policy that bars reporters with press passes from entering the building without an escort, sets rules on when reporters may promise anonymity to sources, and preserves other restrictions the court had rejected. The department told the court it had addressed the legal defects identified by Friedman, and Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said the department has reinstated credentials and would appeal the March 20 decision.
Friedman rejected the Pentagon’s changes, saying the access it provided “is not even close to as meaningful as the broad access” reporters previously had. “The Department cannot simply reinstate an unlawful policy under the guise of taking ‘new’ action and expect the Court to look the other way,” he wrote, calling the department’s actions a “blatant attempt to circumvent a lawful order of the Court.” The judge also noted that ongoing US military operations in places such as Venezuela and Iran make public access to information about government activities particularly important.
Edited by: Sean Sinico