A federal judge blocked Donald Trump‘s executive order that prohibited federal agencies from providing funding to NPR and PBS.
In a ruling issued on Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Randolph Moss wrote that the president’s executive order “singles out two speakers and, on the basis of their speech, bars them from all federally funded programs.”
“Although there are many lawful reasons that the government might decline to make ‘a valuable governmental benefit’ available to someone, punishing disfavored private speech is not one of them,” the judge wrote.
In an executive order last May, Trump prohibited the U.S. government from distributing any funds to the public media outlets, deeming them biased.
Read the judge’s ruling in the PBS and NPR case.
While the ruling is a victory for NPR and PBS, part of their lawsuit is now moot. Last summer, the Republican-controlled Congress rescinded all federal funding to the entity that distributed public media money, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. The CPB later dissolved.
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The judge’s opinion does not change the revocation of CPB money, but he noted that PBS and NPR still received grants from other federal agencies and entities. He wrote, “The message is clear: NPR and PBS need not apply for any federal benefit because the President disapproves of their ‘left-wing’ coverage of the news. Because the First Amendment does not tolerate viewpoint discrimination and retaliation of this type, the Court will issue judgment against the federal- agency defendants declaring Section 3(a) of the Executive Order is unconstitutional and will issue an injunction barring those defendants from implementing it.”
In the executive order, Trump stated that “neither entity presents a fair, accurate, or unbiased portrayal of current events to taxpaying citizens.”
Abigail Jackson, a White House spokesperson, said in a statement, “This is a ridiculous ruling by an activist judge attempting to undermine the law. NPR and PBS have no right to receive taxpayer funds, and Congress already voted to defund them. The Trump Administration looks forward to ultimate victory on the issue.”
NPR and PBS officials see the decision as affirming their argument that they were targeted by the Trump administration in violation of their First Amendment rights.
Katherine Maher, the CEO of NPR, said that the court “made clear that the government cannot use funding as a lever to influence or penalize the press, whether as a national news service or a local newsroom. Public media exists to serve the public interest — that of Americans — not that of any political agenda or elected official.”
NPR’s counsel, Ted Boutrous of Gibson, Dunn and Crutcher, said that the court “expressly recognized” that “the First Amendment draws a line, which the government may not cross, at efforts to use government power—including the power of the purse—‘to punish or suppress disfavored expression’ by others. The Executive Order crossed that line.”
PBS said in a statement, “As we argued, and Judge Moss ruled, the executive order is textbook unconstitutional viewpoint discrimination and retaliation, in violation of longstanding First Amendment principles. At PBS, we will continue to do what we’ve always done: serve our mission to educate and inspire all Americans as the nation’s most trusted media institution.”
