The lawsuit, filed Monday in a federal court in New York, is the first brought not by the banned news outlets but by consumers of their reporting. The plaintiffs include a human rights advocate, a media watchdog, a university history professor, a high school teacher, a legal journalist and a student journalist.
"All of the Plaintiffs rely on the White House press corps for independent reporting about the president and his administration, and all of them use that reporting in a variety of ways in their scholarship, teaching, journalism, or advocacy," the lawsuit states.
Peter Schmidt-Nowara, a New York City high school social studies teacher and one of the plaintiffs, said in a statement: "I'm gravely concerned that the Trump administration's restrictions on White House reporters are cutting off access to crucial information. I joined this lawsuit because my students deserve to know what's happening in their government and to hear from a free and independent press."
The Trump administration has previously banned journalists from CNN, MS NOW and Politico from White House news conferences. A federal judge ruled that ban unconstitutional and ordered access restored, but the administration continues to fight the ruling.
Trump has also suggested moving the press out of the White House briefing room. "I am thinking about moving the Press, and putting them in a different location, but I will use that location for very badly needed space," he wrote in a social media post. He dismissed reports that he planned to evict journalists to restore a swimming pool that was housed there from 1933.
Kenneth Roth, a senior fellow at Yale University and former executive director of Human Rights Watch, said restrictions on press access were familiar in countries whose leaders have become authoritarian. "Worldwide, I have seen how governmental leaders' efforts to penalise independent journalists are a prelude to the rise of autocracy," he said in a statement.