A White House reporter filed a lawsuit against White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre and the Secret Service after alleging they wrongfully revoked his press badge. African journalist Simon Ateba filed a suit on Thursday, arguing the new White House policy allowing them to revoke his press access “violates the First and Fifth Amendments of the Constitution”in an “unconstitutional attempt to arbitrarily restrict who qualifies as “the press.”
According to the lawsuit, “Defendants violated Mr. Ateba’s First Amendment rights by changing the criteria for hard pass credentials to intentionally prevent Mr. Ateba from obtaining hard pass access.”
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In a tweet posted by Ateba on X, the reporter mentioned: “For far too long, some unsuccessful journalists hid behind groups, associations or publications to unleash their dark side; hatred, envy, racism and violence. They assassinated people they didn’t like or simply envied while pretending to be doing journalistic work. But behind it all was their failure to succeed in life. Assassins have to be held accountable. God help me.”
Once we win the lawsuit against @WhiteHouse and @PressSec, the next ones will be against @whca, @washingtonpost and @politico. When you deliberately assassinate someone's character, it's not that different from assassinating them on the street.
For far too long, some… pic.twitter.com/hTaemqGSMG
— Simon Ateba (@simonateba) August 11, 2023
President Joe Biden and his administration announced new rules in May, allowing the White House to rescind a press badge, for the first time ever.
The new rules were unveiled after a March 20 briefing at which Ateba shouted that Jean-Pierre was making “mockery of the First Amendment” by entering the briefing room with the cast of the Apple TV show “Ted Lasso.”
The journalist’s main complaint was that he had not been able to ask a question for seven months. According to Fox News, the reporter has repeatedly mentioned that the White House discriminated against him and other reporters.
Ateba claims his press pass expired on July 31 and he has not been able to renew it since. There are currently 975 reporters with White House hard passes which allow journalists to enter and exit the White House briefing room and press area as they please.
Without hard passes, all forms of press must contact and request a pass from the White House for a specific date.
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