U.S. District Court Judge Randolph Moss permanently struck down President Donald Trump’s executive order attempting to defund NPR and PBS in a 62-page ruling Tuesday.
Moss determined the First Amendment prohibited defunding the entities based on Trump’s view that they don’t present fair coverage. The judge wrote that while the president may criticize news outlets, “the First Amendment draws a line, which the government may not cross, at efforts to use government power…to punish or suppress disfavored expression by others.”
Moss ruled Executive Order 14290 “singles out two speakers and, on the basis of their speech, bars them from all federally funded programs.”
The ruling declared the defunding direction “unlawful and unenforceable” and issued a permanent injunction barring agency defendants from implementing it. Moss made the ruling despite the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which distributes NPR and PBS, having recently shut down following the executive order.
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