Joe Doakes from Como Park emails:

Once someone has been given a White House press pass, they have a First Amendment liberty interest in keeping that pass. Under the Fifth Amendment, that liberty interest cannot be taken by the government without due process of law including notice and an opportunity to be heard. Taking it without the hearing causes irreparable harm to the person whose rights were violated; hence, Acosta gets his badge back.

1977 case provides precedent. Here’s the case.

The judge followed the law correctly but the law is stupid. The First Amendment right to speak your mind doesn’t require a White House pass, else everybody from every newspaper down to the Roseville Review would be entitled to one and how could you decide who gets into the building? Entering the White House must be a privilege, it cannot be a right, regardless of your job, and that’s outside the control of the courts. Any why should freedom of speech be limited to credentialed journalists? Why don’t the guys at Powerline have White House Press Passes – they did more investigative reporting on Ilhan and Ellison than any other media in the Twin Cities this election cycle.

Trump’s administration is working on standards of conduct to decide who gets ejected from press conferences. That’s a mug’s game, it plays into reporters’ hands and leaves the final decision in the courts where Trump has no control.

Two possible solutions:

Announce we’ll move the press conferences to a different, larger, modern building with seating for every journalist who wants to attend, as soon as it’s built, probably on the site of a former football stadium to accommodate all comers. For fairness to the journalists presently excluded for lack of space, no press conferences will be held until the new facility is built. Meanwhile, every newsman will be given notice we intend to revoke their White House press passes on the grounds it’s no longer necessary for them to enter the White House to have access to the press conference. Give selected leaks to selected favored journalists until the stadium is built. Sorry, CNN, no leaks for you.

Option B: hold a press conference tomorrow, announce at the beginning that we welcome back Mr. Acosta, and in deference to the judge’s decision, he gets the first question. Okay, second question, I see the reporter for Fox News here, but your organization joined in the lawsuit to insist Mr. Acosta be able to ask questions, so i’m giving your time to him. Jim, what’s your second question? Okay, third question, I see the reporter for the New York Times here, your organization also joined the lawsuit insisting Mr. Acosta ask the questions, so Jim what’s your third question? Okay, that’s all the time we have for today. Thanks for coming.

Joe Doakes

Ever notice how “Journos” only care about their freedom of speech?