Judge rules Trump’s directive cutting off funding for NPR and PBS violates the First Amendment

Washington — A federal judge ruled Tuesday that parts of President Trump’s executive order stripping National Public Radio and the Public Broadcasting Service of federal funding violated the First Amendment by seeking to punish the two news outlets for speech he dislikes.

U.S. District Judge Randolph Moss permanently blocked the Trump administration from enforcing two provisions of an executive order Mr. Trump signed in May, which directed all federal agencies to cut off funding to NPR and PBS.

“The message is clear: NPR and PBS need not apply for any federal benefit because the President disapproves of their ‘left wing’ coverage of the news,” Moss wrote in a 62-page decision. 

Moss wrote that the directive is unconstitutional because the First Amendment “does not tolerate” that kind of viewpoint discrimination and retaliation.

Mr. Trump and his Republican allies have long criticized NPR and PBS over what they claim is bias reporting against conservatives. The president claimed last year that the news outlets are “arms of the Radical Left Democrat Party.”

In addition to directing federal agencies to terminate funding to PBS and NPR, Mr. Trump’s executive order called for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which provided public dollars to the two news outlets, to cease funding to them. Last year, Congress passed, and Mr. Trump signed into law, a legislative package that clawed back about $1 billion from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting for fiscal years 2026 and 2027.

On the heels of that rescission, the corporation said last August it would begin winding down its operations and last month filed Articles of Dissolution.

But the president’s executive order covered all federal agencies, and the National Endowment for the Arts, FEMA and the Department of Education went on to cancel grants awarded to PBS and NPR, according to court papers. 

NPR and PBS, as well as several member stations, filed their lawsuits against Mr. Trump and his administration in late May challenging the legality of his executive order. The Justice Department has argued that the president acted within his authority when he ordered federal agencies to end funding for PBS and NPR because he has the right to decide what speech to fund.

But in his decision, Moss rejected the Justice Department’s arguments and wrote that the president’s executive order crosses a First Amendment line that bars the government from using its power, including the power of the purse, to punish speech it dislikes.

The measure, he said, “does not define or regulate the content of government speech or ensure compliance with a federal program. Nor does it set neutral and germane criteria that apply to all applicants for a federal grant program. Instead, it singles out two speakers and, on the basis of their speech, bars them from all federally funded programs.”

Moss found that for as long as Mr. Trump’s order is in effect, NPR and PBS cannot be considered for grants that they would otherwise be eligible for based only on the president’s dislike of their coverage, and wrote that the president’s directive seeks to punish the two outlets for their past speech.

“It is difficult to conceive of clearer evidence that a government action is targeted at viewpoints that the President does not like and seeks to squelch,” he wrote. “The Executive Order seeks to exclude NPR and PBS from receiving federal grants or other funding because they have provided more positive coverage of his political opponents than of his party and allies, because their news coverage, in his view, tips left, and because they were critical of him.”

The judge added that “there can be no doubt” that Mr. Trump’s measure targets NPR and PBS because he believes their coverage is unfavorable to him and the Republican Party.

“To be sure, the President is entitled to criticize this or any other reporting, and he can express his own views as he sees fit,” Moss wrote. “He may not, however, use his governmental power to direct federal agencies to exclude Plaintiffs from receiving federal grants or other funding in retaliation for saying things that he does not like.”