National Public Radio headquarters in Washington, Tuesday, May 27, 2025. (Photo by Jennifer Shutt/States Newsroom)
WASHINGTON – A federal judge ruled Tuesday that President Donald Trump exceeded his authority when he signed an executive order last year that blocks the flow of funds to the Public Broadcasting Service and National Public Radio.
U.S. District Judge Randolph Daniel Moss wrote in: Order on 62 pages that while many of the original issues in this case are no longer relevant after Congress defunded the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a portion of the order calling on the agencies to end “all direct or indirect funding of NPR and PBS” remains in effect.
“The message is clear: NPR and PBS do not have to apply for any federal benefits because the president disapproves of their ‘left-wing’ news coverage,” Moss wrote.
“Because the First Amendment does not tolerate viewpoint discrimination or this type of retaliation, the Court will enter judgment against federal agency defendants, finding that Section 3(a) of the Executive Order is unconstitutional, and will issue an injunction prohibiting these defendants from enforcing it.”
Moss was nominated to the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia by former President Barack Obama in 2014.
White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson suggested in a statement that the administration would appeal the court’s decision.
“This is an absurd ruling from an activist judge trying to undermine the law. NPR and PBS have no right to receive taxpayer funds, and Congress has already voted to deprive them,” Jackson wrote. “The Trump administration looks forward to a final victory on this issue.”
A spokesperson for PBS said in a statement that the organization was “delighted with today’s decision declaring the executive order unconstitutional.”
“As we have argued and Judge Moss ruled, the executive order is textbook unconstitutional discrimination and retaliation in violation of long-standing First Amendment principles,” the spokesperson added. “At PBS, we will continue to do what we have always done: serve our mission to educate and inspire all Americans as the nation’s most trusted media institution.”
An NPR spokesman did not respond to a request for comment.
No impact on the financing of the Congress
Trump issued an executive order titled “Ending Taxpayer Subsidies of Biased Media” last May, which led to two separate lawsuits that were later consolidated.
There was one submitted by NPR along with three stations in Colorado: Aspen Public Radio, Colorado Public Radio and KSUT Public Radio. The second lawsuit was filed by PBS and Lakeland PBS in Minnesota.
NPR’s lawsuit alleged that Trump’s executive order had an “overt retaliatory purpose” and was “unlawful on numerous counts.”
“The order is textbook retaliation and viewpoint discrimination in violation of the First Amendment and interferes with the free speech and editorial freedom of NPR and local member stations,” the lawsuit said. “Finally, by attempting to deny NPR crucial funding without notice or meaningful due process, the Order is violating the Due Process Clause of the Constitution.”
The lawsuits were filed with the Trump administration in June Congress asked to eliminate $1.1 billion in previously approved funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which provided grants to NPR and PBS.
Senate voted 51-48 in July to approve the proposal, and the House approved this version of the nullification bill on 216-213 vote shortly thereafter.
Viewpoint discrimination
Moss wrote in his ruling that the original portions of the lawsuit filed against the Corporation for Public Broadcasting were no longer relevant because “CPB no longer exists, and any court order declaring the executive order unlawful as applied to CPB cannot provide NPR, PBS, or their member stations with any significant relief.”
“But this does not end the matter because the implementing order goes beyond the CPB,” he added. “It also directs all federal agencies to refrain from funding NPR and PBS – regardless of the nature of the program or the merits of their applications or requests for funding.”
Moss wrote that while Trump can condemn news organizations as much as he wants, he cannot order government officials to engage in viewpoint discrimination.
“Of course, the president has the right to criticize this or other reports and can express his own views at his discretion,” he wrote. “But he cannot use his governmental powers to direct federal agencies to disqualify plaintiffs from receiving federal grants or other funds in retaliation for saying things he doesn’t like.”
The Trump administration’s attempt to block the transfer of grants from the Department of Education, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the National Endowment for the Arts and other agencies to PBS and NPR would have wide-ranging impacts, Moss wrote.
“It does so regardless of whether federal funds are used to pay for nationwide interconnection systems that constitute the technological backbone of public radio and television, to ensure the safety of journalists working in war zones, to support an emergency broadcasting system, or to produce or distribute music, educational programs for children or other documentary programs,” he wrote.
Trump administration lawyers, Moss wrote, were unable to “explain why NPR’s allegedly ‘biased’ political reporting means that the production and distribution of programs like ‘Tiny Desk Concerts’ … run afoul of the NEA’s authorizing statute.”
