By Devan Cole and Hadas Gold

(CNN) — A federal judge declined on Monday to temporarily restore the Associated Press’ access to some of President Donald Trump’s events, the Oval Office and Air Force One.

US District Judge Trevor McFadden turned down a request from AP to temporarily lift a ban Trump imposed earlier this month to punish the news organization over its decision to continue using the phrase “Gulf of Mexico” even though Trump renamed the body of water “Gulf of America.”

But while McFadden denied the request for a temporary restraining order during a hearing Monday, the judge scheduled a hearing for March 20 to hear arguments over the AP’s request for a preliminary injunction.

McFadden, of the US District Court in Washington, DC, was appointed by Trump in 2017.

McFadden gave a number of reasons for why he decided to deny the request for emergency relief at this stage in the litigation, including that he wasn’t persuaded that the AP was facing “irreparable harm” as a result of the ban.

He said the news organization “can get access to the same information” from the pool notes that are given to all members of the White House Correspondents’ Association even if it’s barred from being at the events where that news is made.

And he said the organization’s delay in bringing its lawsuit was evidence that it wasn’t being injured in a way that necessitated his intervention more than a week after the White House instituted the ban.

During the hearing, however, the judge appeared somewhat skeptical of the legality of the ban, describing it at one point as “discriminatory” and “problematic.”

And while the judge seemed to take issue with the way the pool is set up, he also noted that the decadeslong practice of having one to cover certain presidential news events is something the White House has long accepted.

“It feels a little odd that the White House is bound by certain decisions that this private organization is making,” he said at one point. But, he added later, the White House “has accepted the White House Correspondent Association’s ability to be the referee here.”

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt posted a statement on X that said the administration stands by its decision to limit AP’s access to the president. “As we have said from the beginning, asking the President of the United States questions in the Oval Office and aboard Air Force One is a privilege granted to journalists, not a legal right,” it said.

“We look forward to our next hearing on March 20 where we will continue to stand for the right of the press and the public to speak freely without government retaliation. This is a fundamental American freedom,” AP spokesperson Lauren Easton said in a statement.

‘The president can choose who to speak with’

The AP sued Trump White House chief of staff Susie Wiles, Leavitt, and deputy chief of staff Taylor Budowich last week, arguing the ban violates the First Amendment and the due process clause of the Fifth Amendment.

During the hastily scheduled hearing Monday afternoon, an attorney for the AP told the judge that the White House was trying to impermissibly force the news organization to adopt “official government vocabulary” through limiting its access to certain presidential events and areas.

The attorney, Charles Tobin, said that the ban’s “ground seems to keep shifting” and explained how its scope has expanded in recent days to include both AP reporters and photographers – and that it now “appears as though it is a total bar” on the organization’s access to nearly all White House press events.

He said that the White House “picked on AP and nobody else” because the organization publishes a widely used stylebook. The government, Tobin said, wanted his client to “help them in their mission of changing the national vocabulary.”

In court papers, Tobin and other attorneys said that without emergency court intervention, the AP will face irreparable harm that would also flow to its member news organization and readers.

“The AP’s exclusion from the Oval Office, Air Force One, and other spaces open to other members of the press pool severely hinders its ability to produce timely, thorough, and informative reporting,” the filings read.

By being blocked from the Oval Office and Air Force One, the AP is not able to access important news moments and ask questions during certain press availabilities. It also is being blocked from its role as part of the White House press pool, a rotating group of journalists who send out moment by moment updates on the president’s activities to a broader group of news organizations.

Attorneys at the Justice Department, which is representing the White House in the case, urged the judge to not intervene at this stage, arguing in court papers that the ban has not impaired the AP’s ability to report thoroughly on the president. They noted that its access is now akin to other news organizations that don’t have the same kind of access the AP enjoyed prior to the ban.

DOJ attorney Brian Hudak said during Monday’s hearing that “the president can choose who to speak with.”

But the judge seemed unpersuaded by the government’s view that being a member of the White House press pool was akin to having a sit-down interview with the commander-in-chief. He described the pool as a small group of journalists who are “witnessing history”

The Justice Department’s written legal arguments were submitted to the court by Ed Martin, the interim US attorney for Washington, DC. Martin was in the well of the courtroom on Monday but did not present arguments during the hearing.

In a statement posted to X as the hearing was underway, Martin described himself and his colleagues as “Trump’s lawyers” — a comment that drew strong criticism from Democrats who argued that he was abusing the power of the Justice Department.

“As President Trumps’ lawyers, we are proud to fight to protect his leadership as our President and we are vigilant in standing against entities like the AP that refuse to put America first,” the statement said.

White House Communications Director Steven Cheung had previously called the AP’s lawsuit “frivolous and demented” and claimed it is “nothing more than a blatant PR stunt masquerading as a First Amendment case.”

Media across the spectrum support AP’s case

Most other major news outlets are still using “Gulf of Mexico,” although the AP is thus far the only outlet part of the press pool that’s been singled out. The outlet’s journalists have retained their White House press credentials.

Several news outlets, including those seen as Trump’s media allies, have publicly supported the AP. The New York Times, NBC, the Wall Street Journal, Fox News, Newsmax and CNN signed onto a joint letter to the White House urging the administration to immediately lift the ban on the AP.

Though the AP has changed how it refers to Mount McKinley, which Trump renamed from Denali, it said it would stick with the “Gulf of Mexico” because it is an international body of water and other countries do not recognize the new name. As a global news outlet with customers all around the world, the AP said it will continue using the name “Gulf of Mexico” in its news coverage and influential stylebook while still acknowledging the new “Gulf of America” name.

And in a friend-of-the-court brief submitted Monday, the White House Correspondents’ Association threw its support behind the AP, telling McFadden that Trump’s ban “threatens the integrity of the White House press corps and its first-line coverage of the American presidency.”

During the first Trump administration, the White House revoked then-CNN correspondent Jim Acosta’s press pass. The network brought a federal lawsuit and a judge quickly sided with CNN in the dispute on due process grounds, leading the White House to back down from the legal fight.

This story has been updated with additional details.

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