WASHINGTON — The White House cannot use press credentials to punish news organizations for coverage President Donald Trump dislikes, a federal judge ruled Tuesday, finding that the administration likely violated the First Amendment and reporters’ due-process rights when it barred journalists from CNN, MS NOW and Politico. U.S. District Judge Timothy J. Kelly said Trump’s own public comments pointed to retaliation, not a national-security rationale, as the reason for revoking credentials held by more than 70 journalists. The ruling keeps the outlets’ access protections in place while the case proceeds toward trial. “President Trump’s own comments suggest that he intended the revocation of Plaintiffs’ hard passes to alter their reporting on him,” Kelly wrote, concluding that the move could deter reporters from covering the administration as they had before. The three organizations sued after their reporters’ credentials were confiscated. Kelly had ordered the administration to restore access on Sept. 24; Tuesday’s ruling addressed the underlying legal claims. The White House had not publicly commented in the hours after the decision. The Justice Department argued that national security and concerns about the outlets’ reporting justified the administration’s actions. Kelly rejected the government’s showing as inadequate, noting that the security rationale appeared in court filings days after the credentials were taken. The journalists, he wrote, were not given advance warning or a meaningful opportunity to challenge the punishment before it happened. Kelly, who was appointed by Trump, also made clear that his decision did not invalidate every concern raised by the administration. He wrote that the ruling should not be read to mean the president’s concerns about accuracy and fairness were necessarily unfounded, or that officials could not act to protect national security when classified information is unlawfully disclosed. The decision does not resolve a separate dispute over CNN’s participation in smaller settings, including Air Force One and the Oval Office, where space is limited. CNN is part of a rotating video pool with ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC, which shares the cost and work of recording the president’s public appearances. The network has at times been blocked from serving as the pool’s representative despite the earlier court order. The credential fight is part of a broader clash between the administration and news organizations over access and coverage. The White House has also imposed new restrictions on Pentagon reporters, while the Justice Department has said it is investigating major television networks over alleged antitrust violations related to their response to the CNN ban. Kelly’s ruling puts a constitutional limit on the administration’s control of White House access: once journalists have been credentialed under existing rules, the government cannot simply take those credentials away because officials object to their reporting. The case will continue, and the ruling does not settle every question about where reporters may accompany the president.