WND reported on the. the situation facing Matthew Anthony previously told WND that the White House press office requires him to hold a press pass with Congress and/or the Supreme Court as a condition for renewing his White House press pass.

But the congressional and Supreme Court offices have told him his news organization is funded by donations, and since he is not in attendance at those locations regularly, he does not qualify.

Harper explains that his "main news beat in Washington, D.C. is the White House," so such requirements are simply a "roadblock" to fair and equal access to events.

WND – itself a veteran of legal and bureaucratic battles over press access in the nation's capital, once having threatened to sue all the officials of the Senate Press Gallery and ultimately winning its desired press pass – interviewed Harper, of the Christian newspaper InterMountain Christian News, whose access was threatened.

But, in a letter dated Monday, lawyers for Harper told Karine Jean-Pierre, Biden's press secretary, that the new requirements appear "to be an effort to purge smaller, regional news outlets who cannot afford enough reporters to continually cover both the White House and another branch of the government."

For example, the Congressional Radio and Television Galleries, which creates the requirements for accrediting news agencies in Congress, states as one of its requirements that applicants are "seeking accreditation to cover the U.S. Congress only."

"This makes the requirement by the White House to have 'accreditation by a press gallery' in the U.S. Congress inaccessible to all small outlets with only one reporter covering the several branches of government," the letter said.

"Is this how the Biden administration wants to be known?"

The letter, from Paul A. Hoffman, Individual Rights Foundation affiliate counsel, told Jean Pierre that the White House plan "necessarily leads to fewer news outlets covering essential government functions."

"These new restrictions appear aimed at reducing press access to the White House and are both arbitrary and discriminatory against small, diverse news outlets that will otherwise go unrepresented at White House press conferences."

The letter, it explains, is Harper's "demand that the White House Press Office immediately cease and desist from disabling Dr. Harper's press hard pass" and provide assurance of that.

The alternative, the letter said, is "any and all legal remedies."

Several other reporters, including Fred Lucas of The Daily Signal, also have been caught up in the morass that the White House announcement spawned.