Journalism Groups and ACLU: Trump's Order Targeting Public Media Is Unconstitutional
The executive order targeting funding for NPR and PBS is illegal viewpoint discrimination and retaliation and therefore violates the Constitution, according to recent amicus filings from civil rights and journalism advocacy groups. The briefs were filed last month at the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia and entered this week.
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Communications Daily is required reading for senior executives at top telecom corporations, law firms, lobbying organizations, associations and government agencies (including the FCC). Join them today!
“This case is about whether the President may defund NPR explicitly because he does not like its journalistic and editorial choices,” argued a joint amicus filing from the American Civil Liberties Union and its D.C. and Colorado chapters. The First Amendment prohibits government retaliation “against any independent press or media organization -- including by defunding it -- because the President disagrees with its views.” It also prohibits government from using viewpoint discrimination in the disbursement of federal subsidies, the brief added. “The withholding of a benefit as punishment for disfavored expression may constitute retaliation just as much as the imposition of a penalty.”
A joint filing from the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and numerous NPR member stations said the May 1 order “wrests away” local control of community broadcasters “by imposing editorial conditions on funding and interfering with programming independence.”
Allowing the order to stand “would set a dangerous, speech-chilling precedent,” said a joint filing from the Radio Television Digital News Association, Pro Publica, The Intercept and Digital Next. “Newsrooms are increasingly facing a Hobson’s choice: hew their coverage to the White House’s liking, or face official retribution.” President Donald Trump “does not want NPR, PBS, and their member stations to broadcast the content of their choosing -- he wants them to broadcast content he prefers.”