NPR sues Trump over blocked funding, says it may have to shutter newsrooms
National Public Radio sued President Trump and his administration today over Trump’s move to block funding for public broadcasting. NPR said Trump acted illegally, and that losing federal funding could force it to shut newsrooms and dramatically scale back news coverage.
On May 1, Trump issued an executive order titled, “Ending Taxpayer Subsidization of Biased Media,” in which he ordered the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) and all US agencies to cease federal funding for NPR and PBS. The White House had previously alleged that NPR and PBS “spread radical, woke propaganda disguised as ‘news.’”
NPR’s lawsuit in US District Court for the District of Columbia asked the court to declare Trump’s executive order and all actions to implement it unconstitutional. NPR’s lawsuit said that Trump “has no authority under the Constitution to take such action. On the contrary, the power of the purse is reserved to Congress, and the President has no inherent authority to override Congress’s will on domestic spending decisions. By unilaterally imposing restrictions and conditions on funds in contravention of Congress, the Order violates the Separation of Powers and the Spending Clause of the Constitution.”
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