NPR Sues Trump Over Funding-Cut Order, Broadcaster Cites First Amendment

National Public Radio is suing President Trump, alleging his executive order seeking to cease all federal funding to NPR and PBS is a “clear violation” of the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment.

NPR — along with Aspen Public Radio, Colorado Public Radio and KSUT, a public radio station in Colorado — filed suit Monday, May 27, against Trump in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

Trump on May 1 issued an executive order seeking to cut all federal funding to NPR and PBS, alleging they have engaged with “biased and partisan news coverage.” The order instructs the board of the Corporation of Public Broadcasting to “cease direct funding to NPR and PBS” to the “maximum extent allowed by law.”

Trump’s 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,” NPR CEO Katherine Maher said in a statement. “It is an affront to the rights of NPR and NPR’s 246 Member stations, which are locally owned, nonprofit, noncommercial media organizations serving all 50 states and territories. Today, we challenge its constitutionality in the nation’s independent courts.”

She noted that the executive order “is directly counter to Congress’s long standing intent, as expressed in the Public Broadcasting Act, to foster vibrant institutions that achieve that mission, serving all Americans independent of political influence. The Order threatens the existence of the public broadcasting system, upon which tens of millions of Americans rely for vital news, information, and emergency alerts.”

According to Maher, more than 43 million Americans tune in to NPR each week through a network of local public radio stations dedicated to serving their communities. The organization “provides critical infrastructure services to 379 public radio stations and more than 1,200 radio signals,” she said.