A federal court has issued a decisive ruling obliging the White House to reinstate live American Sign Language (ASL) interpretation at all publicly announced press briefings conducted by President Donald Trump or Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt.
On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Amir Ali—appointed by the Biden administration—found that the White House’s exclusion of deaf Americans from these briefings likely violates federal law and causes “clear and present harm.”
The lawsuit was filed by the National Association of the Deaf (NAD) and a deaf individual, Derrick Ford, after the White House discontinued its previous practice of providing ASL interpreters during press briefings. According to the complaint, this shift occurred in January 2025 and deprived deaf and hard-of-hearing Americans of meaningful access to critical communications.
Judge Ali’s 26-page order emphasized that these briefings cover high-stakes topics—war, the economy, public health—and thus deaf Americans must not be excluded. “The exclusion of deaf Americans … is clear and present harm that the court cannot meaningfully remedy after the fact,” he wrote.
In his ruling, Judge Ali declared that providing ASL interpretation is “readily feasible” and that the applicable federal law—the Rehabilitation Act (Section 504) – is enforceable in this context. Accordingly, he ordered the White House to provide “simultaneous and publicly accessible ASL interpretation by a qualified interpreter for all publicly announced White House press briefings conducted by the President or White House Press Secretary.”
Importantly, the court did not grant the broader relief sought by the plaintiffs. The NAD and Mr. Ford had asked for ASL interpretation at events featuring the Vice President J.D. Vance, First Lady Melania Trump and Second Lady Usha Vance, as well as for all White House videos and social-media posts, with specific screen-placement requirements for the interpreter. Judge Ali found that the record did not yet support such sweeping relief at this stage.
The Trump administration had argued that closed-captioning sufficed as an accommodation. But the court rejected that notion, noting that many deaf Americans use ASL as their primary language and have limited proficiency in English—making captioning alone inadequate.
The judge also addressed the administration’s claim that including an ASL interpreter would be a “major incursion” into the briefings. He dismissed the argument, stating: “ASL interpretation does not require a speaker to ‘share his platform’ with anyone,” and that remote interpretation is nonetheless feasible.
The White House has been ordered to submit a status report by November 7 to inform the court of its compliance with the order. At the time of reporting, no official comment had been provided.
