The Associated Press argued for keeping its Oval Office and Air Force One access before a Washington, D.C. appeals panel Monday, after riling President Donald Trump over the news outlet’s insistence using the phrase “Gulf of Mexico.” 

“The First Amendment does not stop at the Oval Office door,” AP attorney Charles Tobin argued before the three-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals. 

He argued that the White House press pool system has long allowed the AP to attend almost every presidential event. He noted that some form of the White House press pool goes back to the White House of President James Garfield, and was more formalized under President Dwight Eisenhower.

“Your honor, they are not his personal space, with all due respect, those are the paid-for-by-the-taxpayer, people’s offices that the government is conducting government actions for the people,” Tobin said said of the Oval Office and other limited-space venues in the White House where a relatively small number of reporters are allowed access to the president.

In January, Trump signed an executive order renaming the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America. However, the AP continued referring to the body of water as the Gulf of Mexico. The wire service, with client news outlets around the world, argued it reports for a global audience, and some of its international clients and audience do not recognize Trump’s executive order. In response, the Trump White House barred the AP from access to the Oval Office events as well as Air Force One. 

This is not a First Amendment matter, argued Yaakov Roth, the principal deputy assistant attorney general. He said journalists and others are effectively invited to the Oval Office, which makes it different from the other larger White House areas where journalists routinely cover presidential events. 

“When the president invites reporters into the Oval Office, is he creating a First Amendment forum? I think the answer to that is clearly not, because they are not being invited to engage in private speech,” Roth told the judges.

“That makes it unlike all of the forum cases, including the non-public forum cases that the AP relies on, and because it is highly selective, the White House is inviting particular outlets into the Oval Office—it is not a situation, again, like all the non-public forum cases.”

The White House press pool system is for events in the Oval Office, the Cabinet Room, and other smaller spaces that can’t accommodate all of the media covering the White House. Generally, one print reporter, one TV reporter, one radio reporter, and one new media reporter are allowed. While the pool spots rotated among reporters, the AP—which reaches a broad audience—has also had access to the limited-space pool events for decades.

The AP is still allowed access to the White House events and press conferences in the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room, the East Room, and the Rose Garden. 

Two Trump appeals court appointees, Judges Gregory Katsas and Neomi Rao, and one Barack Obama appointee, Judge Cornelia Pillard, heard the arguments Monday. 

In April, U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden, a Trump appointee, ruled the White House acted against the First Amendment by blocking the AP’s access for not using “Gulf of America.”

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