National Public Radio and three public radio networks in Colorado have filed a lawsuit against President Trump and his administration over his executive order on May 1 to stop all federal funding to NPR and PBS.
NPR, Aspen Public Radio, Colorado Public Radio and KSUT Public Radio are challenging the order for violating “the expressed will of Congress and the First Amendment’s bedrock guarantees of freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and freedom of association, and also threatens the existence of a public radio system that millions of Americans across the country rely on for vital news and information.”
The executive order directed the board of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting to stop directing public funds to to NPR and PBS as well as indirect funding by ensuring that station licensees do not use Federal funds for NPR and PBS. The order stated, “Which viewpoints NPR and PBS promote does not matter. What does matter is that neither entity presents a fair, accurate, or unbiased portrayal of current events to taxpaying citizens.”
The text of the lawsuit can be read here.
NPR CEO Katherine Maher released the following statement regarding the lawsuit:
This morning, NPR and Aspen Public Radio, Colorado Public Radio, and KSUT Public Radio filed a lawsuit challenging President Donald Trump’s May 1, 2025, Executive Order seeking to cease all federal funding to NPR and PBS.
The Executive Order is a clear violation of the Constitution and the First Amendment’s protections for freedom of speech and association, and freedom of the press. It is an affront to the rights of NPR and NPR’s 246 Member stations, which are locally owned, nonprofit, noncommercial media organizations serving all 50 states and territories. Today, we challenge its constitutionality in the nation’s independent courts.
Public media was established to inform the American public and uphold American democratic values. The President’s Executive Order is directly counter to Congress’s long standing intent, as expressed in the Public Broadcasting Act, to foster vibrant institutions that achieve that mission, serving all Americans independent of political influence. The Order threatens the existence of the public broadcasting system, upon which tens of millions of Americans rely for vital news, information, and emergency alerts.
For decades Congress has, in its bipartisan fashion, promoted, supported, and protected the speech of all Americans — including NPR, our Member stations, and other noncommercial radio stations. The United States Congress established the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967, recognizing that broad access to free, high-quality, independent noncommercial and educational public radio and television programming was both a public good and civic necessity, critical to fostering an engaged and informed citizenry as provided for under the First Amendment.
The Act, which provides for the creation of programming of “quality, diversity, creativity, excellence, and innovation,” is a testament to Congress’s foresight. It created the infrastructure for a public radio system that reaches nearly 99% of the U.S. population over the airwaves. It provides for the resources for local newsrooms to serve their communities, children’s shows that educate and inspire, arts and cultural programming that preserves and celebrates national heritage, and storytelling that challenges and connects.
President Trump has repeatedly expressed his disapproval of editorial decisions reflected in programming offered by NPR and PBS. He has disparaged NPR’s news and other content as “left-wing propaganda.” His Executive Order states that our coverage is not “fair, accurate, or unbiased,” building on prior statements making clear the President’s disapproval of NPR’s news coverage and editorial choices. The intent could not be more clear — the Executive Order aims to punish NPR for the content of news and other programming the President dislikes.
This unlawful Executive Order directs federal agencies, as well as the independent nonprofit Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), to withhold all federal funding from NPR and PBS. It also directs CPB to “cease indirect funding to NPR and PBS” by mandating that local public radio and television stations not use federal funds to acquire NPR or PBS programming.
This is retaliatory, viewpoint-based discrimination in violation of the First Amendment. The Supreme Court has ruled numerous times over the past 80 years that the government does not have the right to determine what counts as “biased.” NPR will never agree to this infringement of our constitutional rights, or the constitutional rights of our Member stations, and NPR will not compromise our commitment to an independent free press and journalistic integrity.
NPR has a First Amendment right to be free from government attempts to control private speech as well as from retaliation aimed at punishing and chilling protected speech. By basing its directives on the substance of NPR’s programming, the Executive Order seeks to force NPR to adapt its journalistic standards and editorial choices to the preferences of the government if it is to continue to receive federal funding.
NPR is a non-partisan news organization that adheres to and upholds the highest standards of public service in journalism. NPR ensures the integrity of its reporting through multiple, rigorous safeguards. We maintain an editorial firewall that protects against interference in editorial decision-making, and we require all editorial staff to adhere to stringent ethics policies set out in the NPR Ethics Handbook.
Over the past half century, NPR has been widely recognized for our independent voice, pioneering style, and journalistic excellence. NPR is the recipient of a Pulitzer Prize, Edward R. Murrow awards, National Press Club awards, and an Alfred I. duPont-Columbia award for exceptional journalism, in addition to dozens more recognizing NPR’s creativity, innovation, and excellence in podcasting, music programming, and digital production.
While NPR is not a public radio station, nor does it operate one, we produce, acquire, and distribute news and cultural programming integral to the hundreds of independently owned and operated public radio stations around the country and to an informed public. For more than 50 years, programs like Morning Edition and All Things Considered, Planet Money, and Tiny Desk Radio, have served generations of Americans.
Today, more than 43 million Americans come to NPR each week through a network of local public radio stations dedicated to serving their communities. Aspen Public Radio has grown from broadcasting daily hog prices from the University of Wyoming into one of the most relied upon news institutions in the Roaring Fork Valley. Colorado Public Radio (CPR) is home to CPR News’ daily “Colorado Matters” interview show, CPR Classical, and Indie 102.3 music. And KSUT Public Radio, originally founded by the Southern Ute Indian Tribe, serves 14 communities in the Four Corners region, and four Federally Recognized Tribes.
NPR also provides critical infrastructure services to 379 public radio stations and more than 1,200 radio signals. Radio is one of the most resilient forms of public safety communications: it reaches the most remote corners of our nation, and is reliable even when all others fail. As the organization selected by America’s public radio stations to manage the national Public Radio Satellite System (PRSS), NPR operates the backbone for public radio emergency alerting across the country. PRSS enables vital information and federal emergency alerts to reach nearly every American, including those who live in the most remote corners of our nation.
NPR’s programming and services are core to the overall health of American public radio. If stations are prohibited from using public funds to acquire NPR programming, our widely-respected reporting on veterans affairs, science, health, and education could disappear from local airwaves. If NPR cannot receive funds for broadcast infrastructure, station service areas will shrink, dismantling universal service. And without public dollars, NPR’s investment in rural reporting initiatives, collaborative regional newsrooms, and award-winning international coverage would all be at risk.
Public broadcasting is an irreplaceable foundation of American civic life. At its best, it reflects our nation back to itself in all our complexity, contradictions, and commonalities and connects our communities across differences and divides. For more than fifty years, NPR has reported from town halls, living rooms, and main streets across the nation, alongside our troops abroad, and from the outer edges of scientific and cultural change. As our nation approaches the 250th anniversary of our founding, NPR looks forward to continuing to explore, explain, and attempt to elucidate the great American experience. We stand for constitutional rights, a free press, and an informed public, and we file today on their behalf.
