Overview

• On May 30, PBS and its Minnesota affiliate Lakeland PBS filed suit in U.S. District Court in Washington to halt enforcement of President Trump’s order ending federal support for public radio and television
• The lawsuit argues the May 1 directive breaches the First Amendment’s free speech protections through viewpoint discrimination against public media content and violates the Administrative Procedure Act
• The executive order follows an April proposal to reclaim $9.3 billion in public broadcasting funds and directs the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and federal agencies to cease funding for NPR and PBS
• Federal cuts threaten flagship educational series such as Sesame Street, local news services in rural areas and emergency alert infrastructure that rely on public stations
• NPR filed a parallel First Amendment lawsuit earlier this week and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting separately sued over the president’s attempt to remove three of its board members