• by Ray Schultz , Yesterday

National Public Radio (NPR) and local stations in Colorado have filed suit against the Trump administration for cutting off federal funding with an executive order issued on May 1.  

Executive Order 14290 “flatly contravenes statutes duly enacted by Congress and violates the Separation of Powers and the Spending Clause by disregarding Congress’s express commands,” the complaint states. “It also violates the First Amendment’s guarantees of freedom of speech and of the press.”

In addition to President Trump, the suit names Russell T. Vought, director of management and budget; Scott Bessent, secretary of the treasury; and Maria Rosario Jackson as chair of the National Endowment for the Arts. 

The plaintiffs include Aspen Public Radio, Colorado Public Radio and KSUT Public Radio. 

The lawsuit asks the court to declare Executive Order 14290 unlawful and unconstitutional, and to enjoin the administration from attempting to implement it.

“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,’" the complaint states, quoting a legal opinion in a separate case. 

Trump and members of the administration “deride NPR’s content as ‘left-wing propaganda’ and underline the President’s antipathy toward NPR’s news coverage and its editorial choices,” the complaint alleges. 

The Public Broadcasting Act of 1967 “created the infrastructure for a public radio system that, today, reaches approximately 99% of the U.S. population over the airwaves and, in doing so, serves the same fundamental purpose—to foster an engaged and informed citizenzy—as the first Amendment.”

The filing has drawn praise from some observers.  

“President Trump’s efforts to strip NPR and PBS of federal funding based on perceived bias is a textbook example of a content-based restriction on free speech and a direct violation of the First Amendment,” says Edward Klaris, managing partner at Klaris Law. 

Klaris adds: “Glad to see this lawsuit being filed, as censorship of any kind, especially against public media in retaliation for editorial independence, cannot be tolerated.” 

The case is on file with the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.”