The New York Times sued the Pentagon for the second time in five months, arguing that a policy requiring journalists to be escorted while on Pentagon grounds violates the First Amendment, according to the newspaper and a statement conveyed through an email to The Associated Press.
The new lawsuit targets the Pentagon’s escort rule directly and was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, the paper said, seeking a court ruling on the constitutionality of the escort requirement. Charlie Stadtlander, a Times spokesman, said in the email to The Associated Press that the escort policy amounts to “an unconstitutional attempt by the Pentagon to prevent independent reporting on military affairs.”
Stadtlander also said the newspaper’s case reflects a belief that Americans should be able to see how their government is being run, and he tied the escort rule to restrictions that the Times argues impede independent reporting on military affairs. In the same reporting, Defense Department spokesperson Sean Parnell disputed the Times’ latest legal challenge, describing it on X as an effort to get around barriers tied to handling classified information.
On X, Parnell wrote that the Times’ lawsuit was “nothing more than an attempt to remove the barriers to them getting their hands on classified information.” He added that the Department’s policy is “completely lawful and narrowly designed to protect national security information from unlawful criminal disclosure,” according to The Associated Press account.
The Times’ filing follows a broader escalation in tensions between the media and the second Trump administration, a dispute that has unfolded both in public and in court. The paper said it filed its additional lawsuit after it first sued the Pentagon in December over new rules imposed by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, the newspaper said were meant to challenge an interim policy introduced after a federal judge previously ruled in the Times’ favor.
Those earlier rules, the Times said, included a requirement that journalists be escorted by Pentagon personnel at all times while on Pentagon grounds. According to the reporting, the interim escort policy was implemented in March after U.S. District Court Judge Paul L. Friedman struck down earlier restrictions on media access—rulings that addressed the rights of Times reporter Julian E. Barnes.
The legal fight over those access limits continued through the courts. The judge later ruled that the interim policy itself violated his earlier March order, but the escort requirement remained in effect during the government’s appeals process after an appeals court stayed part of Friedman’s ruling, according to The Associated Press report. The appeals process is ongoing, and the Times’ renewed suit seeks to have the escort rule addressed by the courts on constitutional grounds.
In its new filing, the Times and Barnes asked the court to rule on the escort requirement, arguing that it has the aim of limiting reporting access to journalists who agree to report only what Pentagon officials approve. The paper described that purpose in terms that it said show what it considers the rule’s constitutional problems, and it said the escort policy is meant to close access to reporters or organizations unwilling to follow those constraints.
The Times said it challenged the earlier Hegseth-era access rules in December and that news organizations—including the Times—had at times walked out of the Pentagon rather than accept the rules as a condition for a press credential. The dispute has continued to affect how press coverage occurs from within Pentagon space, with a separate press corps approved by the department occupying Pentagon areas where the Times has sought access, according to the account.
As the case proceeds in federal court, the conflict between the paper and the Pentagon centers on how the escort requirement is justified, with the Times characterizing it as an unconstitutional barrier to independent reporting and the Pentagon characterizing it as a lawful measure to protect national security information.