Federal Judge Blocks Trump Order to Cut Funds for NPR and PBS

U.S. District Judge Randolph Moss ruled that an executive order last year gutting the U.S. public media system was “unlawful and unenforceable.”

One of the control rooms at the Arizona PBS offices

Katie Oyan/AP

A federal judge on Tuesday blocked the Trump administration from cutting federal funding for public media, including National Public Radio and the Public Broadcasting Service.

Randolph Moss, a U.S. district judge for the District of Columbia, declared in a 62-page opinion Tuesday that the moves were “unlawful and unenforceable because [they] are viewpoint discriminatory and retaliatory.”

“It is difficult to conceive of clearer evidence that a government action is targeted at viewpoints that the President does not like and seeks to squelch,” Moss added.