A federal judge said the Trump administration can't enforce the president's order to ax federal funding for National Public Radio and the Public Broadcasting Service, saying in a March 31 decision that the White House can't "extinguish speech" the president dislikes under the First Amendment.
U.S. District Judge Randolph Moss in his ruling said federal agencies can't enforce the "unconstitutional" executive order signed by President Donald Trump last May, which directed agencies to terminate funding to NPR and PBS. It also directed the Corporation for Public Broadcasting to stop funding the networks, but the corporation was dissolved as of January.
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The executive order crossed a line drawn by the First Amendment, said Moss, who was appointed to the Washington, DC, federal court in 2014 by former Democratic President Barack Obama. The judge wrote the executive order crossed a legal line because it did not use neutral criteria for federal funding.
"Instead, it singles out two speakers and, on the basis of their speech, bars them from all federally funded programs," Moss wrote in a 62-page order.
