Historic Press Freedom Case Rooted in High Times Founder's Pie Protest

A landmark press freedom case that just blocked Trump's media ban traces its origins to Tom Forçade, founder of High Times magazine, who threw a cheese pie at a Commission on Obscenity and Pornography member in the 1970s. When the Secret Service denied Forçade a White House press pass citing the incident, he filed suit alongside Nation correspondent Robert Sherrill in what became the precedent-setting case Sherrill v. Knight. This week, a Trump-appointed federal judge invoked this decades-old ruling to order the White House to restore press credentials for CNN, MS NOW, and Politico, demonstrating how Forçade's act of protest established enduring protections for press access and freedom.