Simon Ateba v. Karoline C. Leavitt, in Her Official Capacity as Press Secretary to the President of the United States, et al.

The White House hard-pass policy governs journalists’ access to the White House Press Area, a critical venue for covering the President. The Biden Administration amended the policy in 2023 to require journalists generally to first obtain credentials from one of the Congressional press galleries before they may obtain a hard pass. But in adjudicating applications for Congressional credentials, the press galleries apply vague standards without decisional deadlines or an avenue for judicial review. Petitioner Simon Ateba, a 15-year journalist and White House correspondent for Today News Africa, had his hard pass revoked under the new policy because he lacked Congressional credentials. He challenged the new policy under the First Amendment, but the D.C. Circuit upheld the policy. The questions presented are:

1. Whether the existence of unbridled discretion in a speech-licensing regime is per se viewpoint discrimination or merely assessed for constitutional reasonableness.

2. Whether decisional deadlines in a speech-licensing regime are constitutionally required when the regime is content-neutral.

3. Whether the availability of inferior alternatives in a speech-licensing scheme—such as, here, the fact that a journalist may be able to obtain a day pass to access the Press Area—cures a violation of the unbridled discretion doctrine.