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A federal judge ordered the Pentagon on Tuesday to temporarily lift a requirement that all journalists visiting the building be accompanied by an official escort while The New York Times sues to overturn the rule. The decision was another rebuke to the Trump administration’s efforts to restrict reporters who cover the military complex.

In a preliminary ruling, Judge Paul L. Friedman, of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, said the escort policy violated the First Amendment.

“This court has spoken at several points about the critical importance of protecting the freedoms enshrined in the First Amendment, and that evergreen message bears repeating,” he wrote.

The decision is a preliminary victory for The Times. It bars the Defense Department from enforcing the escort rule against the newspaper’s Pentagon reporters. It is not clear when others in the Pentagon press corps will get the same relief.,,,,

The Pentagon has argued that its escort policy is critical to its obligation to protect national security, and that reporters who circulate without escorts are able to “maintain a persistent physical presence near sensitive spaces within the Pentagon,” according to the court declaration of one official. It said journalists had used their roaming privileges to corral sensitive information.