Appeals court hears arguments over Associated Press' access to White House

A federal appeals court on Monday is hearing arguments over The Associated Press' access to the White House, after President Trump barred the news service reporters from the Oval Office.

The Trump administration has appealed a judge's April ruling that the president unlawfully retaliated against the AP over its refusal to call the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America, which Trump changed it to through a February executive order, Reuters reported. 

The AP said it would continue to use the "Gulf of Mexico" while acknowledging the new name Trump gave it.

Justice Department lawyer Yaakov Roth told the court on Monday that the AP does not have a right under the Constitution's First Amendment protections for press freedom to special access to non-public areas.

"The president routinely invites Republicans and not Democrats into the Oval Office for ceremonies," Roth said. "Nobody thinks that he has to extend those invitations on a viewpoint-neutral basis. For the same reasons he can invite favored reporters and not disfavored reporters to watch that ceremony in the Oval Office."

"We strongly believe this case could have much wider implications, not only for other news organizations, but for anyone in America," an AP spokesperson said Monday. "Those ripples are becoming more evident since we first took this case to court."

The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals in June paused the lower court's injunction while it considered the Trump administration's appeal.

The AP sued three senior Trump aides in February, alleging the restrictions on the news wire were an attempt to coerce the press into using the administration's preferred language in violation of constitutional rights to both free speech and due process.

In April, the administration removed wire services, including Reuters and the AP, from the permanent White House pool, but it allows them to participate on a sporadic basis.