Federal judge blocks Trump executive order to cease funding for NPR and PBS, cites First Amendment

A federal judge on Tuesday blocked the Trump administration’s efforts to defund PBS and NPR. 

The ruling by U.S. District Judge Randolph Moss in Washington, D.C., pertains to President Donald Trump’s executive order to cease federal funding for both entities, an action the judge ruled was unlawful and unenforceable.

“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, an Obama appointee.

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“The Federal Defendants fail to cite a single case in which a court has ever upheld a statute or executive action that bars a particular person or entity from participating in any federally funded activity based on that person or entity’s past speech,” the judge wrote.

Republicans have long campaigned on ending federal funding for public media, citing left-wing political bias and wasteful spending of taxpayer dollars. 

“The message is clear: NPR and PBS need not apply for any federal benefit because the President disapproves of their ‘left-wing’ coverage of the news,” Moss wrote.

NPR claimed that Trump wanted to cut off access to public funds as punishment for its reporting. In a statement to Fox News Digital, Katherine Maher, NPR’s president and CEO, called Tuesday’s ruling a win for a free and independent press.

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“The court made clear that the government cannot use funding as a lever to influence or penalize the press, whether as a national news service or a local newsroom,” Maher said. “Public media exists to serve the public interest—that of Americans—not that of any political agenda or elected official.”

Fox News Digital has reached out to the White House and PBS for comment. 

While the government argued some legal claims were moot because of the organizational shifts following the initial defunding attempts, Judge Moss disagreed.

“But that does not end the matter because the Executive Order sweeps beyond the CPB,” Moss added. “It also directs that all federal agencies refrain from funding NPR and PBS—regardless of the nature of the program or the merits of their applications or requests for funding.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.