Judge rules that Trump’s order to end funding for PBS, NPR was an illegal violation of the First Amendment

A federal judge ruled that President Donald Trump’s executive order to end funding for public media outlets PBS and NPR violated the First Amendment.

In a ruling Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Randolph Moss of the District Court for D.C. said Trump’s 2025 executive order to halt funding of NPR and PBS is unlawful and unenforceable. The judge wrote that the First Amendment right to freedom of speech “does not tolerate this type of facial discrimination and retaliation.”

“It is difficult to think of clearer evidence that government action is aimed at views the president displeases and seeks to suppress,” Moss wrote. A copy of the ruling is available at this link. Moss was nominated to the bench by President Obama.

Variety has reached out to the White House for comment.

Both NPR and PBS had sued Trump over his executive order suspending U.S. federal funding for public media. Trump’s order, issued on May 1, 2025, alleged that public media organizations engaged in “biased and partisan reporting” and directed the board of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting to “discontinue direct funding to NPR and PBS” to the “maximum extent permitted by law.”

there is more to come