WASHINGTON — A lawyer for The Associated Press asked a federal judge Thursday to reinstate the agency’s access to the White House press pool and other official events, saying the Trump administration’s ban is a fundamental attack on freedom of speech and should be overturned. The government insisted there was no evidence that AP had been harmed irreparably.

“AP has now spent 44 days in the penalty box,” said Charles Tobin, speaking on behalf of the news agency.

After a full day’s hearing, U.S. District Court Judge Trevor N. McFadden adjourned the case without a decision.

The AP and the new administration are at odds over the White House’s removal of AP reporters and photographers from the small group of journalists who follow the president in the pool and other events. Last month, AP sued White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt and two other administration officials, demanding reinstatement.

The White House retaliated against the news outlet last month for not following President Trump’s executive order to rename the Gulf of Mexico.

The notion of banning a news agency for what it says — and for not using the words that a government demands — is extraordinarily unusual in a country whose Constitution guarantees free speech without official interference. By punishing AP for what it publishes, the administration has raised questions about what the White House feels it could punish from news outlets whose words or images it doesn’t like.

The judge questioned whether it’s a court’s place to order the White House which reporters it could or couldn’t exclude from a presidential event. “My instinct is that this has not changed how your client is exercising its free-speech rights,” McFadden told Tobin.

A lawyer for the government, Brian Hudak, said that the AP hadn’t shown irreparable harm to its business. “There is no showing of exclusion,” he said, adding that AP can still access events in the East Room and document who arrives at the White House and leaves it. The AP says that it has had only sporadic access to East Room events.

Hudak brought no White House officials in as witnesses on Thursday. The AP brought its chief White House photographer and reporter as witnesses to explain how their job has been affected. Tobin said that the AP has already lost a $150,000 advertising contract by a client concerned about the ban.

Journalists talk about how the ban has affected AP

Evan Vucci, the AP photographer, testified that the agency was “basically dead in the water on major news stories.” Vucci took a renowned and widely distributed photo of Trump immediately after an assassination attempt in Pennsylvania last summer; in court, Tobin held up a book published by Trump’s allies that depicted the same photo on its cover.