Campbell Law Assistant Professor Nicole Ligon featured on CNN

Earlier this year, Ligon published an article in the Penn State Law Review entitled "Due Process and Press Credentialing." The article examines government-issued press credentials through the lens of procedural due process, asking whether they may give rise to protected liberty or property interests under the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments and, if so, what procedural protections should accompany their denial or revocation. The article is the first law review article to examine press credentialing through this particular due process framework.

The CNN story quotes both Ligon's scholarship and comments on the concerns that arise when government officials have authority to decide which journalists receive access while those same journalists are reporting on them. It also discusses Ligon's proposal that press credentialing systems incorporate greater procedural protections and more independent decision-making, including models like the congressional press galleries.

The CNN article, entitled "The intricacies of press credentials, at the White House and beyond," was published on Sept. 24, 2026, after a federal judge ordered the Trump administration to temporarily reinstate the reporters' White House access while each side continues to make its case. CNN, MS NOW and Politico were eventually allowed back in after being denied.

The article states, "A journalistic credential, in the U.S., does not inherently make a person a journalist. Where doctors or lawyers need to be properly educated and authorized by overseeing bodies, journalists operate with no formally required qualifications. But journalists do need to go places and see things, including getting access to spaces and events that aren't open to the general public. So governments, law enforcement agencies and private entities have systems to provide credentials to identify people who are gathering the news."

The article continues, "This means the independent press and the authorities coming to an agreement about who is engaged in newsgathering. Who gives out a press pass? Who gets one? And on what grounds can they be denied or revoked? These questions can produce fundamental conflicts around reporting. 'The same public offices responsible for managing public perception are also empowered to decide which journalists are granted access, often without external review or oversight,' Nicole Ligon, an assistant professor of law at Campbell University, wrote in a law review article on press credentialing published earlier this year."

Ligon teaches classes related to Media Law and the First Amendment as well as Professional Responsibility and Trial Advocacy. Previously, Ligon served as a Clinical Professor of Law at Duke University School of Law and the Supervising Attorney of Duke's First Amendment Clinic. She also practiced litigation with Cahill Gordon & Reindel LLP in New York. Ligon frequently contributes expert analysis and commentary to news stories involving First Amendment concerns.

ABOUT CAMPBELL LAW SCHOOL

Since its founding in 1976, Campbell Law School has developed lawyers who possess moral conviction, social compassion, and professional competence, and who view the law as a calling to serve others. Among its accolades, the school has been recognized by the American Bar Association (ABA) as having the nation's top Professionalism Program and by the American Academy of Trial Lawyers for having the nation's best Trial Advocacy Program. Campbell Law boasts more than 5,000 alumni, who make their home in nearly all 50 states and beyond. In 2026, Campbell Law is celebrating 50 years of graduating legal leaders and 17 years of being located in a state-of-the-art facility in the heart of North Carolina's Capital City.