A federal judge has ruled that President Donald Trump’s executive order last year to cut funding to PBS and NPR Public Media violates the First Amendment.
In a ruling Tuesday, D.C. District Court Judge Randolph Moss said President Trump’s executive order to defund NPR and PBS was illegal and unenforceable. The judge said the First Amendment right to free speech “does not condone this type of viewpoint discrimination or retaliation.”
“It is hard to think of clear evidence that the government’s actions target views the president dislikes and seeks to quash,” Moss wrote.
President Trump’s order to defund PBS and NPR “selects two speakers and excludes them from all federally funded programs based on the content of their speeches…There are many legal reasons why the government may deny someone a ‘valuable government benefit,’ but punishing objectionable private speech is not one of them.”
Moss also noted that Trump’s order cancels federal funding for public media “regardless of whether federal funds are used to pay for the National Interconnection System, the technical backbone of public radio and television, to provide safety and security for journalists working in combat zones, to support emergency broadcast systems, or to produce and distribute music, children’s and other educational programming, and documentaries.”
A copy of the judgment is available at this link. Moss was appointed to the bench by President Obama.
In a statement to Variety, White House press secretary Abigail Jackson said, “This is an absurd ruling by an activist judge seeking to undermine the law. NPR and PBS are not entitled to taxpayer funds, and Congress has already voted to defund them. The Trump administration is looking forward to ultimate victory on this issue.”
The judge’s ruling issued an injunction barring the Trump administration and federal agencies from denying funding to PBS and NPR. But considerable damage has already been done to American public media.
Both NPR and PBS sued Trump over his executive order ending federal funding for public media. President Trump’s order, issued on May 1, 2025, alleges that public media organizations engage in “biased and partisan news reporting” and directs the Corporation for Public Broadcasting’s board of directors to “cease direct funding to NPR and PBS” “to the fullest extent permitted by law.”
In July 2025, Congress approved President Trump’s reversal plan, eliminating $1.1 billion in funding for public broadcasting over the next two years. After Congress approved defunding the CPB, President Trump celebrated in a post on Truth Social, writing that Congress “cut funding from the brutal NPR and Public Broadcasting, where billions of dollars a year are wasted. Republicans have been trying to do this for 40 years and failed… But not anymore. This is a big deal!!!”
CPB closed in January 2026 for the first time in 58 years due to funding cuts.
In a statement about Tuesday’s ruling, PBS said it was “thrilled by today’s decision to declare the executive order unconstitutional. As we argued and Judge Moss ruled, the executive order constitutes textbook unconstitutional discrimination and retaliation and violates long-standing First Amendment principles. At PBS, we will continue to do what we have always done: fulfill our mission to educate and inspire all Americans as the nation’s most trusted media outlet.” institution. ”
“Today’s decision is a decisive affirmation of the right of a free and independent press and is a victory for NPR, our network of stations, and our tens of millions of listeners across the country,” said NPR President and CEO Katherine Maher. “We have made clear that government funds cannot be used to influence or penalize news organizations. Public media exists to serve the public interest, the interests of the American people, and not to serve any political agenda or electoral interest.” Official. ”
Maher added that NPR and its member stations “will continue to provide independent, fact-based, high-quality reporting to communities across America, regardless of the administration of the day.”
NPR also provided a statement from Theodore Boutras, a partner at Gibson Dunn & Crutcher, an attorney representing the group. “Today’s ruling is an important victory for the First Amendment and freedom of the press,” Bootle said. “The district court’s decision prohibits the government from enforcing an unconstitutional executive order targeting NPR and PBS because the president dislikes their news reporting and other programming. As the court has explicitly recognized, the First Amendment draws a line that the government cannot cross against efforts to use government power (including financial resources) to ‘punish or suppress offensive speech’ by others. The executive order crosses that line.”
