The New York Times filed a lawsuit against the Pentagon over new rules restricting how reporters cover the U.S. military, claiming they violate the First Amendment.
The lawsuit, filed Thursday in the U.S. District Court in Washington, alleges that the 21-page agreement that Pentagon reporters were told to sign in October was unlawful and unconstitutional. Many reporters, including six at The New York Times, handed in their Pentagon access badges in protest over the policy.
The Defense Department’s new policy “seeks to restrict journalists’ ability to do what journalists have always done — ask questions of government employees and gather information to report stories that the public beyond official pronouncements,” the lawsuit alleges.
The lawsuit states it will “vigorously defend against the violation of these rights, just as we have long done throughout administrations opposed to scrutiny and accountability.”
“The policy is an attempt to exert control over reporting the government dislikes, in violation of a free press’s right to seek information under their First and Fifth Amendment rights protected by the Constitution,” a spokesperson for The New York Times said in a statement.
The lawsuit names the Department of Defense, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell as defendants. The action is brought by the New York Times Company and its defense reporter.
The Department of Defense, now known as the Department of War, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Pentagon has said the policy is not an attempt to target any particular news outlet, but is “preventing leaks that damage operational security and national security. It’s common sense.”
The new rules were strongly opposed by multiple media outlets, and five major broadcasters — including NBC News — said in October that they would not sign the department’s agreement.
The lawsuit alleges that the Pentagon policy was “exactly the type of speech- and press-restrictive scheme that the Supreme Court and D.C. Circuit have recognized violates the First Amendment.”
The rules prohibit the gathering or publication of any information that is not authorized by the government, including declassified information and off-the-record conversations, whether gathered on or off Pentagon grounds. Failure to sign up for the rules could result in a suspension of Pentagon access.
Earlier this year, the Department of Defense announced it would remove several news outlets from in-house workstations as part of what it called an “annual media rotation program.” Several outlets rotated into those positions included Breitbart News, the One America News Network, the New York Post, and HuffPost.