Overview

• U.S. District Judge William E. Smith enjoined the National Endowment for the Arts from using its new case-by-case review tied to a ban on projects that “promote gender ideology.”
• The ruling held the NEA’s Final Notice imposed a viewpoint-based restriction on artists’ speech in violation of the First Amendment.
• Arts groups including Rhode Island Latino Arts, National Queer Theater, The Theater Offensive, and Theatre Communications Group brought the lawsuit with support from the ACLU.
• The NEA had said it would not deny applications solely for promoting “gender ideology,” yet the court said weighting that factor still chilled speech and skewed funding decisions.
• The dispute arose from agency actions responding to a Trump executive order, after which some previously approved grants were rescinded and the agency’s future funding became a political flashpoint.