67% of Americans Approve of Court Order Restoring White House Press Access
On September 18, 2026, President Donald Trump announced on social media that the White House had banned CNN, MS NOW and Politico and revoked their hard-pass credentials. The three organizations sued the administration on September 21, alleging violations of the First and Fifth Amendments. After a hearing on September 23, U.S. District Judge Timothy J. Kelly issued a temporary restraining order on September 24 requiring the White House to restore their credentials and access for 14 days. He found that the organizations had likely been denied constitutionally adequate due process, and that the record predating the lawsuit did not support the administration’s national-security justification. Restoration was not immediate, but the affected reporters regained access around noon.
Hard passes let journalists who regularly cover the president enter the White House complex without applying for daily access. The White House Press Office administers them with Secret Service background screening; more than 1,000 journalists hold one, and applications can take several months. Courts have stepped into such disputes before. In 2018, Kelly ordered the restoration of CNN correspondent Jim Acosta’s hard pass, and in 2020 the D.C. Circuit upheld an injunction blocking the 30-day suspension of journalist Brian Karem’s pass, finding that he was likely to prevail on his Fifth Amendment due-process claim.
We wondered what Americans think of the court’s order. So we asked 816 registered voters (MoE of 3.4%) from September 28 to October 4, 2026 about it:
Which of the following statements best reflects your opinion on the federal court order restoring White House press access for CNN, MS NOW, and Politico?
- Strongly approve
- Approve
- Neutral
- Disapprove
- Strongly disapprove
What voters said
Two in three Americans, 67%, approve of the order, and most of them feel strongly about it. Strongly approve is the largest single answer by a wide margin at 60%, and another 7% approve.
On the other side, 25% disapprove, including 18% who strongly disapprove. Another 8% are neutral and 1% chose none of the above.
Across the political spectrum
This question splits from left to right almost completely. Approval runs at 98% on the Left, 97% on the Moderate Left and 73% in the Center, where 64% approve strongly. On the Left, virtually nobody disapproves.
The Moderate Right is divided down the middle, with 41% approving and 43% disapproving. The Right is the only group in which disapproval wins, 61% to 26%, and 48% there disapprove strongly.
Zooming out
Party affiliation tells the same story, with one exception worth noting. Registered Democrats approve of the order 96% to 1%, and independents approve 78% to 12%, which is more approving than the Center of the spectrum. Registered Republicans disapprove, 62% to 23%, but that still means nearly one Republican in four approves of a court overruling their own president’s ban.
Age divides the country too. Voters aged 18 to 29 approve 73% to 13%, while voters 65 and older approve by a narrower 57% to 32%. The same gap appears between urban voters, who approve 73% to 17%, and rural voters, at 58% to 32%.
Kelly’s order is a 14-day restraining order, not a final ruling. The question underneath it is whether a president may revoke a news organization’s credentials without notice and a chance to respond. On the evidence here, most Americans side with the court: 67% approve of its order, including nearly a quarter of registered Republicans.
See more of what America thinks in our ongoing polls.