A coalition of major news organizations has brought suit against President Donald Trump, alleging that his systematic exclusion of their reporters from White House press access constitutes unconstitutional retaliation against the press. The case arrives at a moment when the relationship between executive power and the free press has grown visibly strained, and it asks the courts to draw a line that presidents have rarely been forced to acknowledge. At its core, the lawsuit poses an enduring question: whether the machinery of government may be turned against the very institutions charged with h