Just weeks after NPR wrote that federal funding is just a small portion of their budgets, NPR and three Colorado public radio affiliates have sued the Trump administration over an executive order that seeks to block federal funding to NPR and PBS. They’re calling it an unconstitutional act of political retaliation against public media.
Filed Tuesday in the District of Columbia, the lawsuit alleges that President Trump’s May 1 directive violates the First Amendment by conditioning federal grants on viewpoint conformity—punishing NPR for what the White House deems “unfair and biased” reporting. The suit argues this is a textbook case of government retaliation against protected speech, drawing on Justice Antonin Scalia’s famous line, “This wolf comes as a wolf,” to underscore the bluntness of the move.
At the center of the challenge is the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), a Congressionally chartered nonprofit that distributes over $500 million annually to NPR, PBS, and local affiliates, explained The New York Times. Trump’s order instructs the CPB to withhold funds from outlets accused of failing to meet fairness standards—criteria the lawsuit calls “vague, subjective, and unconstitutional.”
Free speech attorney Theodore Boutrous is leading the case, with plaintiffs including Colorado Public Radio, Aspen Public Radio, and KSUT, which serves Native communities in the Four Corners. NPR President Katherine Maher blasted the order as “a blatant attempt to punish NPR and its member stations for their journalistic work.”
Though PBS is not a plaintiff, it released a statement indicating it may also seek legal recourse. The CPB, meanwhile, is mounting a separate legal defense to block Trump’s efforts to purge its board.
The First Amendment stakes are high. Under long-established precedent—including cases like Board of Education v. Pico and National Endowment for the Arts v. Finley—the government cannot condition access to public benefits on ideological conformity or use funding as a weapon to coerce speech. By targeting outlets for their content, Trump’s order crosses that line.
This isn’t the administration’s first clash with the media. Trump has successfully settled with ABC News over defamation.
