Trump Order to End Funding for PBS, NPR Blocked in Free Speech Win

A federal judge has struck down parts of an executive order seeking to cut off public funding for the Public Broadcasting Service and NPR, finding that the effort was unconstitutional.

“The First Amendment does not tolerate viewpoint discrimination and retaliation of this type,” wrote U.S. District Judge Randolph Moss in an order issued on Tuesday.

The executive order, called “Ending Taxpayer Subsidization of Biased Media,” slashed subsidies for public media. It’s part of President Donald Trump’s ongoing campaign to leverage federal powers to undercut institutions whose viewpoints he disagrees with. The broadcasters, which filed a lawsuit against the government over the effort, get roughly half a billion dollars in Congressional funding through the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

In the ruling, the court concluded that the administration attempted to suppress disfavored news coverage by singling out two speakers on the basis of their speech.

“The First Amendment draws a line, which the government may not cross,” wrote Moss, an appointee of Barack Obama. He issued a permanent injunction barring the government from enforcing directions to cease funding.

In a statement, a PBS spokesperson said the executive order is “textbook unconstitutional viewpoint discrimination and retaliation, in violation of longstanding First Amendment principles.”

NPR CEO Katherine Maher said in a statement that the ruling is a “decisive affirmation of the rights of a free and independent press — and a win for NPR, our network of stations, and our tens of millions of listeners nationwide.” She added 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” and that “public media exists to serve the public interest — that of Americans — not that of any political agenda or elected official.”

The impact of the rescission of future funding allocated for public media have already been felt. PBS and NPR have scaled back operations, with some stations laying off staffers and cutting some programming.