A "Win" For Acosta

If you read the mainstream media, you would think that Jim Acosta and CNN won a great victory in court today and the petulant reporter will be back working as usual in the White House from now on.  That's not actually the result.  What the judge said was that Acosta's hard pass which gives him quick access to the White House grounds could not be taken away absent "due process".  It didn't require a court hearing, but there had to be some procedure followed before the government could take the pass away.  The judge pointed out that the assistant US attorney appearing before him could not even state who had made the decision to take the hard pass away, let alone the reason for the decision.  The judge also noted that even though Acosta had his pass back, the White House need not ever call upon him again to ask a question.  So what we had was a technical and legalistic decision about process, not about right or wrong.  Acosta can have his hard pass back, but it is still up to the White House and only the White House if Acosta can return to asking questions.

I haven't studied the decision, but it seems like a reasonable result.