(CN) - The White House said in a legal filing on Wednesday that President Donald Trump has "broad discretion" to determine journalists' access, the administration's first formal response to CNN's effort to get back correspondent Jim Acosta's press pass.
In a 28-page response to the federal complaint filed by CNN and Acosta on Tuesday, Justice Department attorney Michael Baer contends “no journalist has a First Amendment right to enter the White House,” and that "the president need not survive First Amendment scrutiny whenever he exercises his discretion to deny an individual journalist one of the many hundred of passes granting on-demand access.”
In its lawsuit, CNN argued that the administration's decision to revoke Acosta's press pass after he engaged in a testy exchange with the president during a press conference is unconstitutional and asked that U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly order the White House to restore it.
According to the news network, the “wrongful revocation of these credentials” violated “CNN and Acosta’s First Amendment rights to freedom of the press, and their Fifth Amendment rights to due process.”
The White House has since offered multiple explanations as to why it yanked Acosta’s access after he briefly refused to turn over the microphone he was using to speak to the president to a White House aide.
Baer argues in the administration's court filing, that "the President and White House possess the same broad discretion to regulate access to the White House for journalists ... that they possess to select which journalists receive interviews, or which journalists they acknowledge at press conferences."
Since Acosta's press pass was taken from him, several news organizations have expressed their support for CNN's quest to get them back.
The New York Times, NBC News, The Associated Press, Bloomberg, Politico, USA Today and the Washington Post have all said they will file amicus briefs in the case, and on Wednesday morning, Fox News threw its support behind its cable competitor.
"Fox News supports CNN in its legal effort to regain its White House reporter's press credential," said Jay Wallace, president of Fox News, in a written statement. "While we don't condone the growing antagonistic tone by both the President and the press at recent media avails, we do support a free press, access and open exchanges for the American people."
Ballard Spahr attorney David Schultz - who also serves as director at Yale Law School’s Media Freedom and Information Access Clinic – told a reporter it seems unlikely the Trump administration will ultimately succeed in its bid to keep Acosta out of the White House permanently.
“While Acosta does not have a constitutional right to a White House press pass, its removal as retaliation for unfavorable coverage would infringe his First Amendment rights,” Schulz said. “The Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia addressed this very issue during the Nixon administration.”