Trump executive order targeting NPR, PBS is unconstitutional, judge rules

A federal judge on Tuesday struck down key parts of President Trump’s executive order last year barring federal funding for NPR and PBS, holding that it is unconstitutional for the government to punish the news outlets based on the content of their reporting.

In a 62-page decision, Judge Randolph Moss of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia concluded that Trump’s executive order instructing all federal agencies to stop funding the two public broadcasters violated the First Amendment. The ruling does not affect Congress’s decision last year to revoke federal funding from NPR and PBS, but the judge’s order blocks federal agencies from implementing or enforcing the president’s executive order in the future. 

“[T]he 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,” Judge Moss wrote. “Executive Order 14290 crosses that line.”

The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, joined by 29 NPR member stations, filed a friend-of-the-court brief last summer in support of NPR’s lawsuit challenging the executive order and asking the court to block the Trump administration from enforcing it. 

The brief argued that Trump’s order targeting NPR and PBS “strikes at the heart of free speech and a free press, undermining the central purpose of the First Amendment.” It also highlighted how local communities are served by locally controlled, independent member stations, and that by taking that local editorial control away from the stations, the order harmed the public.

“This ruling affirms that the government cannot use its power to punish reporting that it does not like,” Lisa Zycherman, the Reporters Committee’s vice president of legal programs, said after Tuesday’s ruling. “The court correctly held that the president’s executive order was unconstitutional, and this decision is an important step toward ensuring that NPR, PBS, and their member stations serving local communities across the country are eligible to receive federal funding moving forward.”