Federal Court Orders White House to Restore Real-Time ASL Interpretations for Press Briefings

The White House has faced a federal court order requiring it to restore real-time American Sign Language (ASL) interpretation at press briefings.

In a lawsuit, Justice Department attorneys argued that providing sign language interpretations would “severely intrude on the President’s prerogative to control the image he presents to the public.”

The National Association for the Deaf has sued the White House over its decision not to provide sign language interpretations during press briefings conducted by President Donald Trump and press secretary Karoline Leavitt.

A federal judge ruled last month that the White House must restore real-time ASL interpretations.

The Trump administration appealed U.S. District Judge Amir Ali’s ruling but has begun providing interpretation at select events.

In his ruling, Judge Ali stated that the decision to end interpretation illegally excluded deaf Americans from critical updates on issues such as the economy, public health, and matters of war.

“Given the nature of the programming at issue here — regularly scheduled briefings on critical topics implicating markets, medicine, militaries, and myriads of other issues — the court finds that denying deaf Americans access to and the benefit of it presents a clear, present, and imminent harm,” Ali wrote.

The National Association for the Deaf argued that the Trump administration violated the Rehabilitation Act, which prohibits government exclusion of people with disabilities from communications.

The Trump administration requested Judge Ali limit his ruling to events scheduled at least 24 hours in advance. However, Ali ruled that White House officials must take all reasonable steps to provide interpretation whenever they have advance knowledge that Trump or Leavitt would be presenting information.

A White House spokesperson confirmed the administration is complying with the court order.

Judge Ali’s ruling does not mandate ASL interpretation for briefings involving the vice president, first lady, second lady, or White House videos.

Ali also rejected arguments from the Trump administration that an interpreter would constitute a “major incursion” into press briefings.

“The evidence shows, and the court finds, that the defendants can readily implement remote ASL interpretation without an interpreter present in the same room as the speaker,” Ali stated.