A federal judge on Tuesday ruled against President Trump’s effort to end federal funding for National Public Radio and the Public Broadcasting Service.
In an executive order last May, Trump halted funding for the media organizations, asserting that neither NPR nor PBS “presents a fair, accurate, or unbiased portrayal of current events to taxpaying citizens.” The White House said separately that the organizations “fueled partisanship and left-wing propaganda with taxpayer dollars, which is highly inappropriate and an improper use of taxpayers’ money.”
NPR and PBS sued the Trump administration, saying their First Amendment rights had been violated. On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Randolph Moss sided with the plaintiffs.
“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,” Moss wrote in his opinion, quoting an earlier Supreme Court ruling. Trump’s executive order crossed that line because it “singles out two speakers and, on the basis of their speech, bars them from all federally funded programs.”
Moss issued an injunction preventing the federal government from continuing its effort to cut off all funding for NPR and PBS.
The ruling does not, however, restore full funding for NPR and PBS. Last summer, Congress clawed back more than $1 billion in funding intended for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which supports the media organizations, and the ruling does not affect that action.
Still, public media officials said they were happy with the ruling. “Public media exists to serve the public interest — that of Americans — not that of any political agenda or elected official,” said Katherine Maher, NPR’s president and CEO. “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.”