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Daily News calls Adams’ ban of City Hall reporter unconstitutional, demands reversal

Daily News management is demanding Mayor Adams reverse his stated ban on the paper’s senior City Hall reporter from mayoral press conferences, calling the move a violation of The News’ constitutional rights.

An attorney for the paper made the demand in a letter sent to the city’s Law Department Friday.

“Banning [senior City Hall reporter Chris] Sommerfeldt from attending the Mayor’s press conferences is plainly unconstitutional,” attorney Matthew Leish wrote, citing both 1st and 14th amendment issues.

Leish asked the Adams administration to drop the ban by noon on Monday at the latest, and did not rule out further legal action. “[T]he Daily News and Mr. Sommerfeldt expressly reserve all of their rights and remedies,” he wrote.

As previously reported by The News, Adams banned Sommerfeldt from future press conferences on Tuesday after the reporter asked a question without raising his hand.

Reporters covering City Hall, including Chris Sommerfeldt at center, raise their hands to ask Mayor Eric Adams questions during an off-topic press conference at City Hall on Tuesday, Oct. 10, 2023. (Luiz C. Ribeiro for New York Daily News)
FILE - Reporters covering City Hall, including Chris Sommerfeldt at center, raise their hands to ask Mayor Eric Adams questions during an off-topic press conference at City Hall on Tuesday, Oct. 10, 2023. (Luiz C. Ribeiro for New York Daily News)

Sommerfeldt has not been called on by the mayor’s press staff in more than three months. The reporter had just asked a follow-up to another journalist’s question when Adams said: “You’re calling out a lot, Chris, stop calling out!” the mayor said in a sing-song tone. “You must have done that in school.”

“Listen, if he does that again, he’s not to come into our conferences,” Adams then said to his press staff.

Sommerfeldt then asked the mayor, “You want to take a question from me, then?”

“He did it again,” Adams replied. “Make sure security knows he’s not allowed back into this room.”

In his letter Friday, Leish, The News’ attorney, said the purported ban “unquestionably violates the First Amendment,” which prohibits selective regulation of the press.

“The Mayor’s press conferences are generally open to any credentialed journalist, and the purported reason for Mr. Sommerfeldt’s exclusion – the fact that he asked questions without being called on – is completely arbitrary given that other journalists have done exactly the same thing without incident,” Leish wrote.

The attorney said the ban also violated Sommerfeldt’s 14th Amendment right to due process to address the proposed ban.

Asked during a round table on the upcoming mayoral primary on WPIX Thursday about his plans, Sommerfeldt said he was going to continue “doing my job.”

Adams, asked if he planned to enforce the ban during a News 12 interview, said he expected there would be conversations between his team and Daily News management and that “we’ll decide what we’re going to do from there.”

City hall did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The letter comes amid a groundswell of opposition to the ban.

The New York Press Club, the Freedom of the Press Foundation, and PEN America have all called on Adams to drop the ban, as has the Daily News Union. Republican mayoral hopeful Curtis Sliwa and Democratic candidate Zellnor Myrie also criticized Adams for the ban.



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