MaddowBlog-After losing key court case, Hegseth's Pentagon imposes new limits on journalists

[LetMyPeopleVote]

Last week a federal court rejected Defense Department press restrictions. This week the DOD is moving forward with new limits on journalists anyway.

After losing key court case, Hegseth’s Pentagon imposes new limits on journalists - MS NOW apple.news/ADNnuWIT-TkO...

— (@oc88.bsky.social) 2026-03-24T14:59:37.713Z

https://www.ms.now/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/hegseth-pentagon-media-restrictions-judge

On Friday, U.S. District Court Judge Paul Friedman ruled against the Pentagon’s restrictive press access policy, concluding that it violated the First Amendment and granted the government overly broad authority to control access to the press corps. The court decision fueled some hopes that conditions at the Defense Department might return to normal.

Those hopes were soon dashed. The New York Times, which helped take the lead in challenging the Hegseth-imposed restrictions, reported:

The Pentagon is closing the workspace used for years by journalists with credentials to cover the military, Sean Parnell, the Pentagon’s chief spokesman, wrote in a memo to senior Pentagon leadership. A new area for the press will be set up in an annex outside the main Pentagon building, he said, and all journalists now seeking physical access to the Pentagon will require an escort.

In addition, the department is changing the wording of some of the rules for journalists requesting a credential, Mr. Parnell wrote.

As far as Hegseth’s team is concerned, the department can impose these restrictions, limiting access to media organizations, without running afoul of Friday’s court ruling, which the Pentagon is appealing.

The Times doesn’t quite see it that way. “The new policy does not comply with the judge’s order. It continues to impose unconstitutional restrictions on the press,” a spokesperson for the newspaper said. “We will be going back to court.”

The Pentagon Press Association similarly said that the department’s latest announcement “is a clear violation of the letter and spirit of last week’s ruling.”

[usonian]

1. New rules. Stand at attention. NO, repeat NO Jelly Donuts allowed.

Pushups are in order.

[Solly Mack]

2. And escorts won't always be available.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

3. Pentagon Press Association statement on new Hegseth access policy to subvert court ruling it just lost:

[LetMyPeopleVote]

4. NYT goes on offense as Pentagon tries to defy court order with a word salad press policy

Hegseth lost in court and is now trying to ignore the court's ruling. This will be fun to watch.

NYT goes on offense as Pentagon tries to defy court order with a word salad press policy - Raw Story www.rawstory.com/trump-defens...

— Sue Stone (@knittingknots.bsky.social) 2026-03-24T23:38:57.705Z

https://www.rawstory.com/trump-defense-2676615501/

President Donald Trump's Pentagon faces a new legal threat after a Department of Defense official admitted to tossing up a word salad press policy in response to a court order.

On Monday, the Pentagon released a new press policy after a federal judge ruled that the agency's current policy is unconstitutional, The New York Times reported. Those policies included closing the Pentagon workspace used by journalists and requiring any journalist seeking physical access to the building to be escorted.

Cmdr. Tim Parlatore, a special adviser to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, told the Times in an interview on Monday that the new policy essentially uses "more words to say the same thing and to foreclose creative misinterpretations."

Lawyers representing the Times cited that interview in a court filing on Tuesday seeking to have the Pentagon's interim policy thrown out.

"Rather than comply with the Court’s Order and accompanying Opinion, Defendants are contemptuously defying it—both in letter and spirit in a newly released 'interim' policy," the lawyers argued. "Among other things, for the first time in history, the Interim Policy bars reporters with press passes from entering the building without an escort, sets up unprecedented rules governing when a reporter can offer anonymity to a source, and leaves in place provisions that this Court’s Order struck."

[LetMyPeopleVote]

5. The NY Times has filed a motion to force Hegseth to comply with the court order

Link to tweet

Hegseth adviser Tim Parlatore told the NYT on the record that for the Pentagon’s latest press policy — after the judge’s ruling — “We used more words to say the same thing”.

The NYT then used that as evidence in its court filing that DoD isn’t complying with the judge’s ruling