A federal judge has spoken up for deaf Americans, ordering the White House to bring back American Sign Language (ASL) interpreters for all press briefings held by President Donald Trump or press secretary Karoline Leavitt, Politico reports.
In his ruling, U.S. District Judge Amir Ali — a Joe Biden appointee — called the Trump administration’s decision to end ASL interpretation an illegal exclusion from crucial government updates on important matters of war, the economy, and public health for deaf Americans. He also cited evidence showing that closed captioning and transcripts are insufficient alternatives.
“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 concluded, requiring interpretation to resume effective immediately with a preliminary injunction.
According to NPR, the Trump team nixed a Biden-era policy, implemented in January 2025, that used live ASL interpreters during briefings and other public events. As a result, both Trump and Leavitt, Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, and the offices for president and vice president were sued in May by the National Association of the Deaf (NAD) and two individual deaf men alleging that not providing ASL services was a violation of Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973.
The law bans discrimination against people with disabilities in federally funded programs. The litigation also accuses the White House of violating the First and Fifth Amendments, which protect free speech and provide due process.
Data from NAD revealed hundreds of thousands of people in the U.S. communicate solely in ASL, in addition to many deaf and hard-of-hearing people not knowing English. ASL has its own vocabulary and grammar set apart from English.
In their puzzling decision, the White House claimed that having ASL interpretation during presidential press conferences would be a “major incursion” on the administration’s rights. Ali said that not being pleased with the idea of having interpreters alongside the president is not a basis to violate laws. “Moreover … ASL interpretation does not require a speaker to ‘share his platform’ with anyone,” the judge continued in his ruling.
“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.”
While the judge failed to grant the group’s request for ASL interpretation at briefings and events by the vice president, first and second lady, NAD interim CEO Bobbie Beth Scoggins released a statement celebrating the judge’s ruling, as it will give the deaf and hard of hearing the chance to have access to important government information that concerns them. “American Sign Language and accurate captioning are both essential to ensuring full and equal access to information,” Scoggins said.
“ASL and English are distinct languages, and captions alone cannot meet the needs of everyone in our community. 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.”
The White House has until Nov. 7 to update the court on its compliance. Ali declined to rule on required interpretation for news networks, the White House website, and social media pages, but Scoggins says the organization will continue to fight for those matters of relief.
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