The Justice Department asked a judge late Tuesday to reject an emergency request by CNN, MS NOW and Politico to restore their White House access, arguing that President Donald Trump can exclude them at his discretion and that their coverage could threaten national security. The filing says “access to the White House is a privilege, not a right” and argues that even accurate reporting of sensitive national security information can cause harm. Restricting reporters’ physical access could reduce their ability to obtain that information, the department argued.

The three outlets sued Monday to overturn the ban on First Amendment grounds. “Without notice or process, the White House revoked our journalists’ credentials because it objected to our reporting,” they said in a joint statement. The Justice Department also argued that longstanding precedent protecting press access was “wrongly decided.” In Sherrill v. Knight in 1977, the federal appeals court in Washington ruled that the First Amendment limited the White House’s ability to arbitrarily deny a journalist a press pass.

The ban has also disrupted shared television coverage of the president. ABC, CBS, Fox News and NBC declined to replace CNN after the White House blocked it from its assigned pool duties Monday, suspending coverage of events designated for the TV pool. The five networks normally rotate those duties and share footage with other news organizations.