Judge Questions Pentagon's Latest Press Restrictions: 'How Weird Is That?'

A federal judge questioned the Pentagon’s new press restrictions during a hearing on Monday.

Earlier this month, Judge Paul Friedman of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia blocked the Pentagon’s latest press restrictions. However, according to a complaint from The New York Times, the Pentagon did not simply follow the order. Instead, it limited reporter access by shutting down the Correspondents’ Corridor and granting journalists access to another area that the press cannot reach without being escorted.

“How weird is that?” Friedman reportedly said at a hearing on Monday. “Is it ‘Catch-22’? Is it Kafka? What’s going on? That hardly seems consistent with right of access and the First Amendment.”

“Nothing will stop them. Not a court order. Not an injunction,” Theodore J. Boutrous Jr., a lawyer representing the Times, reportedly said.

“They’ve made the press credentials that we fought so hard to get back a meaningless piece of plastic. They’ve violated the First Amendment,” he added.