Judge dismisses pending CPB lawsuits as corporation dissolves

Two federal lawsuits involving CPB were dismissed as moot Wednesday due to the corporation’s pending dissolution and because board members who had been named in the cases have left the organization.

U.S. District Court Judge Randolph Moss oversaw both cases and denied earlier motions for summary judgment. He directed a clerk to terminate both cases.

Last April, CPB sued President Trump and other administration officials over an email that sought to terminate three sitting board members: Laura Ross, Diane Kaplan and Tom Rothman. CPB later amended its bylaws in an attempt to protect the board members, but Moss denied CPB’s motion for emergency relief. In July, the federal government filed its own lawsuit to ensure that the board members were “ousted and excluded.”

Ross resigned from the board that month and dismissed her claims in the case against the Trump administration. Rothman also left the board and filed a motion to dismiss his claims against the Trump administration Aug. 1, the same day that CPB announced that it would wind down its operations. Kaplan remained on the board during the transition but resigned Jan. 5, when CPB also announced it was filing paperwork to dissolve.

During a CPB board meeting Tuesday, Chair Ruby Calvert said the decision to dissolve the nonprofit “was made for all the right reasons.”

“We are in the final stages of distributing CPB’s remaining funds, settling our obligations, and preparing to close our doors in the next few weeks,” Calvert added. “And although sad, we must and will move on.”

Earlier this month, CPB President Pat Harrison said in a news release that dissolving CPB was necessary to protect the public media system “rather than allowing the organization to remain defunded and vulnerable to additional attacks.”