Judge says Trump can’t bar NPR, PBS from any government funds

A federal judge ruled Tuesday that President Trump’s executive order seeking to bar any federal money from going to NPR and PBS tramples on those networks’ speech rights.

The two networks’ federal subsidy was cut off by Congress last year but Judge Randolph Moss, an Obama appointee to the court in Washington, said Mr. Trump’s order went beyond that, barring the two networks from even getting federal grants for non-reporting activities.

He said that sort of categorical bar amounted to retaliation against an opponent and cannot survive constitutional scrutiny.

“The message is clear: NPR and PBS need not apply for any federal benefit because the President disapproves of their ’left-wing’ coverage of the news,” Judge Moss wrote. “Because the First Amendment does not tolerate viewpoint discrimination and retaliation of this type, the court will issue judgment against the federal-agency defendants.”

NPR, or National Public Radio, and PBS, or the Public Broadcasting Service, are radio and television networks. They include both a national organization and member stations throughout the country.

They used to get tens of millions of taxpayer dollars each year from the Treasury Department through the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a private nonprofit that was supposed to serve as insulation between the government and the reporting abilities of the two networks.

CPB’s money was revoked by the GOP-led Congress last year, at Mr. Trump’s urging.

Both networks also got other federal money, such as the National Endowment for the Arts and the Federal Emergency Management Agency.