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By Andrew Goudsward
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A federal judge on Monday denied a request by the Associated Press to immediately restore full access for the news agency's journalists after President Donald Trump's White House barred them for continuing to refer to the Gulf of Mexico in coverage.
U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden, a Trump appointee, denied the AP's request for a temporary injunction restoring its access to the Oval Office, Air Force One and events held at the White House.
McFadden said the restriction on "more private areas" used by the president was different from prior instances in which courts have blocked government officials from revoking access to journalists.
"I can't say the AP has shown a likelihood of success here," McFadden said during a court hearing.
The judge set an expedited schedule to consider a longer-term order in the case. McFadden said it appeared the White House had discriminated against the AP based on its coverage choices.
"That does feel kind of problematic here," he said.
After the ruling, the White House said in a statement that "asking the President of the United States questions in the Oval Office and aboard Air Force One is a privilege granted to journalists, not a legal right."
A spokesperson for the AP said the news agency will "continue to stand for the right of the press and the public to speak freely without government retaliation."
The AP sued three senior Trump aides on Friday, arguing that the decision to block its reporters from certain locations violates the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment protections against government abridgment of speech by trying to dictate the language they use in reporting the news.
"The Constitution prevents the president of the United States or any other government official from coercing journalists or anyone else into using official government vocabulary to report the news," Charles Tobin, a lawyer for the AP, said during a court hearing.
Lawyers for the Trump administration argued the AP does not have a constitutional right to what they called "special media access to the president."
"They do not have a constitutional right to continue that access in perpetuity," said Brian Hudak, a Justice Department lawyer defending the Trump officials.
The suit names three White House officials as defendants: Chief of Staff Susan Wiles, Deputy Chief of Staff Taylor Budowich and White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt. Leavitt last week said "we feel we are in the right." Wiles and Budowich did not respond to requests for comment.
Trump signed an executive order last month directing the U.S. Interior Department to change the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America.
The AP said in January it would continue to use the gulf's long-established name in stories while also acknowledging Trump's efforts to change it.
The White House banned AP reporters in response. The ban prevents the AP's journalists from seeing and hearing Trump and other top White House officials as they take newsworthy actions or respond in real time to news events.
The White House Correspondents' Association said in a legal brief backing the AP in the case that the ban "will chill and distort news coverage of the president to the public's detriment." Reuters released a statement in support of the AP.
(Reporting by Andrew Goudsward; Additional reporting by Joseph Ax; Editing by Scott Malone, Will Dunham, Chizu Nomiyama and Nia Williams)
