A federal judge has ruled for the second time in a month that the Pentagon, under Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, violated journalists’ constitutional rights. U.S. District Judge Paul Friedman found that the Department of Defense had defied his earlier March 20 order by rolling out a revised press policy that was, in the judge’s view, just as unconstitutional as the original.
According to The Daily Beast, the trouble began in October 2025, when Hegseth introduced strict new rules for journalists seeking access to the Pentagon. Reporters were told to sign on to the new rules or lose their press credentials. Journalists from nearly every major news outlet, including ABC, CBS, CNN, Fox News, NBC, and PBS, refused to sign and walked out of the building.
