A federal judge is directing the White House to reinstate sign language interpreters at many press briefings months after they were abruptly removed.
The White House must provide a qualified American Sign Language interpreter at all publicly announced press briefings conducted by President Donald Trump or White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt under a preliminary injunction issued early this month by U.S. District Judge Amir H. Ali.
The decision comes in a lawsuit filed earlier this year by the National Association of the Deaf and two deaf individuals after the White House stopped including interpreters at briefings in January. They argued that ASL is a unique language with its own grammar and structure and closed captioning in English is insufficient for many ASL speakers. Failing to provide ASL interpreters violates Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, the lawsuit said.
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“White House press briefings engage the American people on important issues affecting their daily lives — in recent months, war, the economy, and healthcare, and, in recent years, a global pandemic,” Ali’s opinion states. “The exclusion of deaf Americans from that programming, in addition to likely violating the Rehabilitation Act, is clear and present harm that the court cannot meaningfully remedy after the fact.”
The National Association of the Deaf had also sought to have ASL interpreters at all press briefings and events conducted by the vice president, first lady and second lady, but the judge’s order, which is meant to provide preliminary relief while the case proceeds, is more limited.
Bobbie Beth Scoggins, interim chief executive officer at the National Association of the Deaf, welcomed the judge’s order.
“The court’s ruling affirms what we have long known: equal access to information from the White House is not optional. We deserve the same timely, direct access to White House briefings as everyone else,” Scoggins said.
This is not the first time that the National Association of the Deaf has sued the White House over the availability of ASL interpreters. In 2020, a federal district court ordered the White House to provide interpreters for all coronavirus-related briefings. After that, a policy was put in place to provide ASL interpreters for press briefings conducted by the president, vice president, first lady, second gentleman or the White House press secretary, the group said.
The Trump administration indicated in documents filed with the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia that it plans to appeal the preliminary injunction. However, the White House will proceed with providing ASL interpreters for “publicly announced press briefings,” noting that it continues to have a contract with an ASL interpreter service that extends into 2028.
