NPR (formerly National Public Radio) and three Colorado-based public radio stations have filed a federal lawsuit against the Trump administration over the president’s executive action that effectively tried to cut federal funding for NPR, PBS and other public media outlets.
The lawsuit says the Trump administration improperly circumvented the authority of Congress when President Donald Trump signed an executive order that directed the Corporation for Public Broadcasting to stop funding NPR and PBS.
At the time, Trump said there were numerous alternatives of information and educational programming like the type NPR and PBS distribute to non-profit member stations. Trump also took issue with perceived bias at NPR and PBS.
“Neither entity presents a fair, accurate or unbiased portrayal of current events to tax-paying citizens,” Trump wrote in his order earlier this month. “The CPB Board shall cancel existing direct funding to the maximum extent allowed by law and shall decline to provide future funding.”
The Corporation for Public Broadcasting later issued a statement of its own, saying it was authorized by Congress to make federal funding disbursements to NPR and PBS, and that it didn’t have to listen to Trump or anyone else at the White House.
“In creating CPB, Congress expressly forbade ‘any department, agency, officer, or employee of the United States to exercise any direction, supervision, or control over educational television or radio broadcasting, or over [CPB] or any of its grantees or contractors,” the organization said, citing a specific federal statute that aligned with its remarks.
On Tuesday, the lawsuit filed by NPR and the three Colorado radio station restated much of that position.
“The Order targets NPR and PBS expressly because, in the President’s view, their news and other content is not ‘fair, accurate, or unbiased,'” the complaint said.
The lawsuit complains that Trump and members of his White House are attempting to get around Congressional authority by improperly delegating certain funding power on its own. In addition to Trump, the lawsuit names White House Budget Director Russel Vought, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and the Chair of the National Endowment for the Arts Maria Rosario Jackson as defendants.
“The Executive Order is a clear violation of the Constitution and the First Amendment’s protections for freedom of speech and association, and freedom of the press,” Katherine Maher, the former Wikimedia Foundation CEO who now leads NPR as its President, said in a statement.
It isn’t clear how NPR settled on the three Colorado radio stations as eligible to join its suit. PBS is not a part to the lawsuit; the public television outlet says it is still exploring its legal options.
