Theodore J. Boutrous, Jr. Credit: Diego M. Radzinschi/ ALM

A federal judge on Tuesday ordered that Playboy White House correspondent Brian Karem's press credentials be reinstated, in a win for Karem and his Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher attorney Theodore Boutrous.

This is the second legal victory for Boutrous over White House press access, after he successfully argued in federal court in D.C. last year to get CNN White House correspondent Jim Acosta's "hard pass" to the White House reinstated.

Boutrous filed the lawsuit on Karem's behalf in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia earlier this month, and argued in court last week that Judge Rudolph Contreras should rule against White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham's decision to suspend Karem's hard pass.

Karem's hard pass will now remain in place during the course of the lawsuit, according to Contreras' order granting the preliminary injunction.

"Karem has shown that even the temporary suspension of his pass inflicts irreparable harm on his First Amendment rights," Contreras wrote in his opinion Tuesday.

The judge added that "the present record indicates that Grisham failed to provide fair notice of the fact that a hard pass could be suspended under these circumstances."

Boutrous said in a statement that they are "very pleased" with the court's ruling.

"The White House's suspension of his press credentials violated the First Amendment and due process and was a blatant attempt to chill vigorous reporting about the president," he said.

Grisham informed Karem of the "preliminary" decision to suspend his hard pass three weeks after a July altercation in the Rose Garden with former Trump official Sebastian Gorka, who had been at the White House for a social media summit.

The two men were shown on video yelling at each other, with Karem telling Gorka to "go outside and have a long talk." Gorka then approached Karem, who's also a CNN political analyst, and called him a "punk."

The pair had another altercation inside the White House after the event, with Gorka refusing a handshake with Karem, and yelling at him, "you're done!"

Boutrous argued that suspending Karem's pass infringed on the reporter's First Amendment rights, and that Grisham also violated Karem's right to due process.

Grisham, who was named alongside President Donald Trump in the lawsuit, argued that Karem's conduct "violated widely-shared understanding and norms of media professionalism."

Grisham made the official decision Aug. 16 to suspend Karem's credentials for a month, after reviewing a written statement from Karem and meeting with his attorneys.

Contreras wrote in the opinion Tuesday that citing "professionalism" as a standard alone was "too murky" to give Karem good reason to believe his hard pass could be suspended over his conduct at the Rose Garden event.

"What is deemed 'professional' behavior in the context of a state dinner may be very different from what is considered 'professional' behavior during a performance by James Brown," the judge wrote.

Contreras also rebuffed the Trump administration's arguments that standards for behavior at press conferences laid out in a November 2018 letter applied to the Rose Garden event, as it was not specifically a press conference.

And he noted that other members of the crowd, outside of Karem and Gorka, were yelling at the event.

"Taking into account all of the evidence in the present record, the court cannot conclude that Karem's behavior was clearly proscribed by the Acosta letter's standard, or even by any widely understood standard of 'professionalism' or 'decorum' within the context of such an unruly event," he wrote.

That letter was circulated to the White House press corps, after officials initially attempted to suspend Acosta's press credentials. U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly had ordered the hard pass be temporarily reinstated, and the White House decided to drop the fight—but not without adding new rules on behavior for members of the press.

Contreras similarly took issue with Grisham's finding that Karem's comments toward Gorka constituted a threat of physical violence between the two men.

"No doubt, Karem's remark that he and Gorka could 'go outside and have a long conversation,' was an allusion to a physical altercation, but the videos make clear that it was meant as an irreverent, caustic joke and not as a true threat," the opinion read. "And the videos belie the notion that a Secret Service agent had to intervene to prevent a fight: the agent walks right past Karem as the exchange with Gorka is concluding (before returning upon hearing someone call Karem a 'punk ass')."

"Rather, Karem and Gorka each had ample opportunity to initiate a physical altercation, and they each made the decision not to."

Read the decision:

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