NPR Sues Trump White House
• NPR and three Colorado public radio stations filed suit Tuesday morning in federal court against the Trump White House over the president’s recent executive order that purportedly bars the use of Congressionally appropriated funds for NPR and PBS.
The lawsuit, which names President Trump, White House Budget Director Russell Vought, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Maria Rosario Jackson, Chair of the National Endowment for the Arts, as defendants, claims the administration is usurping Congress’ power to direct how federal money will be spent and to pass laws.
The suit calls Trump’s early May executive order “textbook retaliation” and an existential threat to the public radio system “that millions of Americans across the country rely on for vital news and information.” In a statement, NPR President & CEO Katherine Maher said, “The Executive 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.”
“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,'” states the legal brief for the public broadcasters. “The Order targets NPR and PBS expressly because, in the President’s view, their news and other content is not ‘fair, accurate, or unbiased.'” The “wolf” reference was drawn from a 1988 dissent by the late U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia.
The three stations joining NPR in the legal action are Denver-based Colorado Public Radio, Aspen Public Radio, and KSUT, originally founded by the Southern Ute Indian Tribe and now serving four federally recognized tribes in the Four Corners region in Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Utah. A copy of the lawsuit is posted HERE.
