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National Public Radio has sued Donald Trump over the president’s executive order to end federal funding for NPR and PBS.
The lawsuit makes the same argument as several others that have been filed against Trump and his administration as they have moved to tear down the federal government, which is that Congress — not the president — appropriates federal funding. “The president has no authority under the Constitution to take such actions,” NPR’s lawsuit read. “On the contrary, the power of the purse is reserved to Congress.”
Trump signed an executive order earlier this month ordering the government “to cease Federal funding for NPR and PBS,” alleging “bias” in their reporting. Trump has also been looking to rescind the CPB’s federal funding. “Americans have the right to expect that if their tax dollars fund public broadcasting at all, they fund only fair, accurate, unbiased, and nonpartisan news coverage,” the executive order read.
NPR and PBS receive about $500 million annually through the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a private, publicly funded nonprofit created by President Lyndon B. Johnson. Trump has been attacking the CPB since taking office, including by trying to fire some of its board members, prompting a lawsuit. The administration has also been looking to cut the CBP’s federal funding.
NPR — along with multiple member stations from Colorado, which joined the lawsuit — notes in the lawsuit that the Supreme Court has ruled that it is not up to the government to decide what is “biased,” and that Trump’s executive order violates the First Amendment, in addition to the constitutional right of Congress to appropriate federal funds. “It is not always obvious when the government has acted with a retaliatory purpose in violation of the First Amendment. ‘But this wolf comes as a wolf,’” the lawsuit reads. “The Order targets NPR and PBS expressly because, in the President’s view, their news and other content is not ‘fair, accurate, or unbiased.’”
Theodore Boutrous, one of the attorneys representing NPR, said in a statement: “By seeking to halt federal funding for NPR, the executive order harms not only NPR and its member stations, but also the tens of millions of Americans across the country who rely on them for news and cultural programming, and vital emergency information.”
