Clinic Urges Court to Strike Down Pentagon Policy Restricting Reporters’ Newsgathering
The Media Freedom and Information Access (MFIA) Clinic at Yale Law School has filed an amicus brief on behalf of the Pentagon Press Association in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, urging the court to invalidate the Department of Defense’s new Pentagon press policy and restore meaningful access for credentialed journalists.
The brief was filed in New York Times Co. v. Department of Defense, a challenge to the Department’s policy that conditions access to the Pentagon on acceptance of rules restricting how credentialed journalists may solicit information and what they may publish. According to the brief, the rule also authorizes officials to revoke access based on vague standards and unreviewable discretion, which allows them to act based on viewpoint-driven hostility to a journalist’s reporting.
MFIA’s brief argues that the Pentagon’s unsecured areas function as a nonpublic forum that the department has deliberately opened to credentialed journalists for more than 80 years to facilitate newsgathering — activity protected by the First Amendment. Because of that history and purpose, any restrictions must be reasonable and viewpoint-neutral, and the department’s new policy is neither, according to the brief.
The brief argues the policy is patently unreasonable because it bars routine reporting techniques — asking questions, cultivating sources, and seeking tips — undermining the very reason credentialed journalists work from inside the Pentagon. It further contends the policy is unconstitutional because it grants officials unbridled discretion to revoke access based on indeterminate and standardless criteria (including an elastic concept of “unprofessional conduct”).
As the brief explains, the record shows impermissible viewpoint discrimination and retaliation: the department imposed the new restrictions following public attacks on disfavored coverage, revoked credentials of journalists who would not accept the policy, and promoted a “new Pentagon Press Corps” aligned with the administration’s preferences. The brief warns that such official harassment burdens core press functions and harms not only reporters, but the public’s ability to receive timely, accurate information about military operations and national defense policy.
“For more than 80 years, credentialed journalists have worked inside the Pentagon to ensure that the public receives timely and accurate information about the nation’s military and defense policy and operations, at home and abroad,” said Rick Da, a third-year Yale Law School student and member of the MFIA Clinic. “The department’s unprecedented restrictions on press passes break from that tradition and seek to control how reporters gather and report the news. The First Amendment does not permit the government to sideline journalists based on hostility to their reporting or perceived viewpoint.”
The brief states that Pentagon access has long served both the public and the department by enabling accurate reporting, rapid correction of misinformation, and oversight that can improve military operations — benefits the new policy threatens by forcing experienced reporters out and chilling everyday newsgathering.
“The department’s new policy breaks with a decades-long tradition that allowed journalists to report vital information from inside the Pentagon without fear or favor. Our amicus brief makes clear that this viewpoint-discriminatory policy violates the First Amendment’s core protections for free speech and a free press,” said Grace Chisholm, a second-year law student and member of the clinic.
The MFIA clinic team was led by Clinic Director David A. Schulz ’78, with significant contributions from Yale Law School students Grace Chisholm ’27, Rick Da ’26, Taylor Maas ’27, and Visiting Clinical Associate Professor John Langford ’14.
The case advances the clinic’s ongoing work to protect press freedom and reinforce constitutional safeguards for newsgathering and public oversight of government activity.
A decision from the district court is expected later this year.
The Media Freedom and Information Access Clinic at Yale Law School is a law student clinic dedicated to increasing government transparency, defending the essential work of news gatherers, and protecting freedom of expression through impact litigation, direct legal services, and policy work.
