NPR, Colorado stations present case for blocking Trump’s executive order

Attorneys for NPR and Colorado public radio stations presented their arguments Thursday challenging President Trump’s executive order that seeks to cut off federal funding to NPR and PBS. 

The order, issued May 1, directed executive agencies and CPB to stop funding both networks and ordered CPB to prohibit its station grantees from using federal dollars to pay NPR or PBS. 

NPR and the three Colorado stations have asked the court to declare the order unconstitutional and block its implementation, arguing that it violates the First Amendment and harms local stations. 

PBS and Minnesota’s Lakeland PBS filed a separate lawsuit in May but were not part of Thursday’s hearing, where District Judge Randolph Moss listened to arguments for summary judgment. 

NPR’s attorney, Theodore Boutrous, pointed to President Trump’s social media posts and the order itself to make the case that the administration imposed viewpoint discrimination and violated the First Amendment. He said the order “openly seeks to retaliate against NPR.”

Representing co-plaintiffs Aspen Public Radio, Colorado Public Radio and KSUT Public Radio in Ignacio, Colo., attorney Steven Zansberg argued that the executive order is having direct and real effects on the three stations. The stations fear retaliation for spending federal money on NPR licensing and membership fees. 

Moss did not rule Thursday, and it is unclear when he will make a decision. 

NPR’s legal fight with CPB over interconnection money, which was part of this case, was also overseen by Moss. CPB and NPR settled that dispute, with CPB agreeing to provide $36 million for NPR’s Public Radio Satellite System.  

First Amendment arguments

In presenting NPR’s case, Boutrous drew from social media posts, including an April 1 Truth Social post in which Trump called for Republicans to defund NPR and PBS, “THE RADICAL LEFT ‘MONSTERS‘ THAT SO BADLY HURT OUR COUNTRY!”

The order itself claims that neither NPR or PBS “presents a fair, accurate, or unbiased portrayal of current events to taxpaying citizens.”

Boutrous said it is “absolutely clear” that the order is retaliation based on viewpoint. 

But Alexander Resar, a Department of Justice trial attorney, argued the First Amendment does not require the government to fund speech the president views as harmful. 

The executive order also views government subsidization of news as harmful, he argued. The subsequent defunding of CPB through the rescission process was consistent with the government getting out of news media, he said. 

The order states: “Unlike in 1967, when the CPB was established, today the media landscape is filled with abundant, diverse, and innovative news options. Government funding of news media in this environment is not only outdated and unnecessary but corrosive to the appearance of journalistic independence.” 

Retaliation risk for stations

Judge Moss questioned Zansberg over the real impact at this point for the Colorado stations. Zansberg pointed to federal money KSUT expects to receive from the Department of Interior’s Bureau of Indian Affairs and said it is subject to the order’s restriction on indirect funding to NPR. 

In a Tuesday court filing, KSUT Executive Director Tami Graham said that the station received an email notification Sept. 26 of a pending $333,897 BIA grant. That is the same figure KSUT received from CPB in FY25. 

The station typically spends a significant part of its CPB money to license NPR programming, Graham said. 

“The Order therefore puts KSUT in an untenable position: if we use this funding to license NPR news and other programming, I fear that BIA could retaliate against KSUT, including by seeking to claw the funding back or denying funding in any future grant award,” Graham said in the declaration. “If KSUT does not spend the BIA funding on NPR programming, we may need to seek additional sources of revenue or cut funding from other priorities.”

In another example, Aspen Public Radio Executive Director Breeze Richardson said in a Tuesday filing that the station used part of its final September CPB payment of $12,658 to pay for NPR membership fees. 

“I fear that Aspen Public Radio will be punished for having spent federal funds to help pay its NPR membership fees,” Richardson said in the declaration. 

Richardson expressed concerns about whether Aspen Public Radio will be eligible for federal funding in the future if Congress returns money to CPB and whether federal agencies will retaliate against the station. 

“Such retaliatory measures could include tax audits or a review of our non-profit status by the Internal Revenue Service, or an attempt by the Federal Communications Commission to revoke Aspen Public Radio’s broadcast license,” Richardson said.