NPR and three Colorado public radio stations filed suit Tuesday morning in federal court against the Trump White House over the president's executive order that purportedly bars the use of Congressionally appropriated funds for NPR and PBS.
"It is not always obvious when the government has acted with a retaliatory purpose in violation of the First Amendment. 'But this wolf comes as a wolf,'" the legal filling for the public broadcasters states. "The Order targets NPR and PBS expressly because, in the President's view, their news and other content is not 'fair, accurate, or unbiased.'"
The line about the "wolf" was drawn from a 1988 dissent by the late U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia.
The lawsuit says the administration is usurping Congress' power to direct how federal money will be spent and to pass laws. It names President Trump, White House budget director Russell Vought, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Maria Rosario Jackson, the chair of the National Endowment for the Arts, as defendants.
