The order ‘violates due process, the Separation of Powers and the Spending Clause of the Constitution,’ the lawsuit says.
President Donald Trump’s order cutting funding for media outlets violates the U.S. Constitution, National Public Radio (NPR) said in a lawsuit filed on May 27.
Trump’s May 1 order directed the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a nonprofit established by Congress in 1967 to oversee taxpayer-funded broadcasters, to end direct funding for NPR and the Public Broadcasting Service, or PBS.
The order violates the First Amendment’s protection of expression, the suit states.
“The Order also violates due process, the Separation of Powers and the Spending Clause of the Constitution,” it says.
The suit was filed in federal court in Washington.
“The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) is creating media to support a particular political party on the taxpayers’ dime. Therefore, the President is exercising his lawful authority to limit funding to NPR and PBS,“ Harrison Fields, a White House spokesman, told The Epoch Times in an email. ”The President was elected with a mandate to ensure efficient use of taxpayer dollars, and he will continue to use his lawful authority to achieve that objective.”
The Corporation for Public Broadcasting did not respond to a request for comment by publication time.
The order says that no outlets have a constitutional right to public money and that neither outlet “presents a fair, accurate, or unbiased portrayal of current events to taxpaying citizens.” That’s despite the law establishing the corporation saying the entity cannot “contribute to or otherwise support any political party,” Trump wrote.
The White House has pointed to NPR articles such as one about “genderqueer dinosaur enthusiasts,” its initial refusal to report on the laptop computer owned by former President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, and how its CEO, Katherine Maher, has called Trump a racist.
