Appeals court keeps in place Pentagon's escort policy for reporters
The appeals court in Washington, D.C., divided 2-1 in ruling in favor of the Trump administration in the legal battle over the Pentagon's escort policy for journalists.
Updated on: July 17, 2026 / 10:09 AM EDT / CBS News
Washington — A divided federal appeals court said Thursday that the Pentagon can continue enforcing a policy that requires journalists to be escorted while on its grounds.
A panel of three judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit split 2-1 in siding with the Trump administration and agreed to halt a lower court decision that had blocked the escort policy.
Two of the judges, Karen Henderson and Patricia Millett, said the Defense Department is likely to succeed on its argument that the escort requirement does not constitute unlawful retaliation under the First Amendment.
The judges said in an unsigned order that the New York Times and reporter Julian Barnes, who are challenging the rule, "have not argued that the escort requirement is not, in fact, generally applicable and applied across the board to all reporters. Nor have they argued that the policy is not being implemented evenhandedly. Neither have they contended that the policy has a distinctively adverse impact on them or their news reporting ability that is different from the policy's effect on all other covered reporters."
Judge Bradley Garcia dissented, writing that a "retaliatory government policy should not be immunized simply because it is broadly and evenly applied."