The New York Times sues the Pentagon a second time over Hegseths media restrictions
The New York Times sued the Department of Defense for the second time in five months on Monday, arguing that requiring journalists to be escorted while on Pentagon grounds violates the First Amendment.
Times spokesman Charlie Stadtlander said in an email to The Associated Press that the escort policy was “an unconstitutional attempt by the Pentagon to stifle independent reporting on military matters.”
“As we’ve said before: Americans deserve visibility into how their government is run and the actions the military takes on their behalf and with their tax dollars.”
At X, Defense Department spokesman Sean Parnell called the Times’ latest lawsuit “nothing more than an attempt to remove barriers to accessing classified information.”
The Times lawsuit is another salvo in the growing tensions between the US media and the second Trump administration, playing out both publicly and occasionally in the courts.
The newspaper filed the additional lawsuit after first suing the Pentagon in December over new rules imposed by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who objected to the interim policy “which the Pentagon hastily implemented after a federal judge ruled in favor of The Times in its first case.” The new policy included a requirement that journalists be accompanied by escorts at all times while in the Pentagon.
The policy was implemented in March following a ruling by U.S. District Court Judge Paul L. Friedman, who lifted earlier restrictions on media access, saying they violated the rights of Times reporter Julian E. Barnes and the newspaper.
The following month, the judge ruled that the temporary policy violated his March ruling. However, the escort policy remained in effect While the government appealed, the appeals court remained a part of Friedman’s ruling. The objection process continues.
The new lawsuit, filed in District of Columbia district court by the newspaper and reporter Barnes, aims to get courts to directly address the escort rule on constitutional grounds.
In the filing, the newspaper argues that the rule, like the Pentagon’s other media restrictions, has a clear purpose: “to close the Pentagon to any journalist or news organization who does not wish to report only what Department officials approve.”
It is argued that this is “manifestly unconstitutional”.
In December, the Times sued the Pentagon. Trying to overturn new rules Hegseth has imposed that he argues violate the Constitution’s free speech and due process provisions. Publications such as the Times went out Instead of accepting the rules as a condition for getting press credentials, the Pentagon. A new press corps approved by the department now occupies the Pentagon grounds, while they continue to cover the US military from outside the building.
In Monday’s
He added: “The Department’s policy is entirely legal and narrowly designed to protect national security information from unlawful criminal disclosure.”
