Democrats blocked an amendment allowing transgender athletes to play women’s sports.

WASHINGTON DC — In September, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth told reporters at the Pentagon that they must agree to a pledge that, among other things, required them not to gather any information, including unclassified documents already released to the public, if the Department of Defense did not authorize the information for release.

Many reporters, especially legacy reporters from national press organizations, walked out that day.

Then, in December, the New York Times filed suit against the Department of Defense and Secretary Hegseth for the new credentialing system, saying that the system violated the first amendment for freedom of speech, and also violated reporters' due process.

On Friday, March 20, a federal judge agreed. U.S. District Judge Paul Friedman, from the Washington D.C. District Court, wrote in his decision that the credentialling process “fails to provide fair notice of what routine, lawful journalistic practices will result in the denial, suspension, or revocation” of Pentagon press credentials. He ruled that the process violates not only the first amendment rights to free speech and the press, but also the fifth amendment right to due process. Friedman said that the nation's security requires a free press, and that its security is endangered by governmental suppression of political speech.

Friedman was originally nominated to the D.C. District court by President Bill Clinton.

Pentagon spokesman Seth Parnell posted on social media late Friday that the ruling would be appealed.

The Pentagon was ordered to reinstate the credentials of seven New York Times reporters, but the ruling also applied to all regulated parties, which means that the federal government cannot restrict journalists' access without due process. An association of journalists who had worked in the Pentagon immediately called for all reporters who had lost access to be reinstated.