WASHINGTON — A federal court has issued a permanent injunction preventing the Trump administration from carrying out a presidential order that would have eliminated government funding for NPR and PBS.
U.S. District Judge Randolph Moss issued his decision Tuesday in Washington, declaring that President Trump’s executive directive to halt funding for the public broadcasting organizations violates constitutional law and cannot be enforced. In his ruling, Moss stated that First Amendment free speech protections prohibit this kind of viewpoint-based discrimination and retaliatory action.
“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,” wrote Moss, who was nominated to the bench by President Barack Obama, a Democrat.
During a press conference last year, Trump expressed his desire to eliminate funding for NPR and PBS, claiming both organizations show bias toward Democratic viewpoints.
In their legal challenge, NPR argued that the Corporation for Public Broadcasting infringed on their First Amendment rights by moving to terminate their access to congressionally allocated grant funding. The organization also contended that Trump, a Republican, sought to retaliate against them based on their news coverage.
Following congressional defunding last August, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting announced plans to begin shutting down operations.
