JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
A federal judge has blocked President Trump's May 2025 executive order barring all federal funding for NPR and PBS. The judge called the order unconstitutional on its face, saying Trump sought to punish the broadcasters because he didn't like their content. NPR's David Folkenflik has been covering the case and joins us now. Hi.
DAVID FOLKENFLIK, BYLINE: Hey, Juana.
SUMMERS: David, tell us more about this ruling as well as its significance.
FOLKENFLIK: Pretty strong rules - words from Judge Randolph Moss. He basically said that this was unlawful on its face, unconstitutional on its face, because it represented an effort by the Trump administration to embody his own personal distaste for what NPR and PBS put on the air. And while he said that the administration certainly had the right to try to fund things that it agreed with, it couldn't knock out content that it didn't like that had been appropriately and lawfully funded by Congress. He called this retaliation.
He didn't - you know, he basically granted the motions of NPR and PBS and let's - as well the local member stations involved in Colorado and in Minnesota in this regard. But, you know, he basically set aside the elements involving the Corporation for Public Broadcasting because that went out of business as a result...
SUMMERS: Right.
FOLKENFLIK: ...Of the sequence of movements put in motion by the president last year. Nonetheless, on the law, on the merits, it seems as resolute and as clear-cut a ruling as I've read in a long time.
SUMMERS: Yeah, but Congress already clawed back all the money it was supposed to spend for public broadcasting this year, so help us understand why this ruling matters now.
FOLKENFLIK: So it matters in a couple of ways. First off, there's still some money that's been blocked off. As I understand it, there's been money set aside for the Ready To Learn program that a lot of PBS stations and PBS have been involved with over the years for early learners. There's money set aside for stations in this bill that's sort of waiting for consideration on a much broader scope, but nonetheless within the bill, for - through FEMA for the kind of emergency services that public media outlets provide and, in fact, were part of the debate that you saw last year when the president first proposed clawing back all of the money for public media.
The president, of course, insisted upon this happening. Congress, entirely led by Republicans in the House and Senate, made it happen - sort of, for some eagerly, others grudgingly - last summer. But there's still money sort of in the pipeline left there. But in reality, I think that this is more of a clear-cut case that even if Trump is in office, if there were a Congress differently inclined or, perhaps after this year's elections, differently constituted, they - the members of both chambers could decide once more to fund public media through different outlets than the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which, as I mentioned, is no longer in existence.
SUMMERS: Right.
FOLKENFLIK: But it could fund those things, and that couldn't be bottled up by this executive order. What the judge is saying here is that's not lawful and that's not constitutional and it should no longer obtain, although he's sort of inviting people in to - the parties in to help him figure out what that means.
SUMMERS: Last thing. What do we know about what might happen next? Will the White House appeal this decision?
FOLKENFLIK: I have seen a statement that - from White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson. She said, this is a ridiculous ruling by an activist judge attempting to undermine the law. NPR and PBS have no right to receive taxpayer funds, and Congress already voted to defund them. The Trump administration looks forward to ultimate victory on this issue. Now, is that a promise of an appeal? It's not. But you're seeing a president here who's back on his heels. He achieved a major accomplishment in getting that money clawed back. That unraveled, really, you know, more than five decades of understanding of public funding for public media. And at the same time, there seems to be daylight here for them to try to press ahead. We don't know if an appeal will actually happen.
SUMMERS: NPR media correspondent David Folkenflik. Thanks so much.
FOLKENFLIK: You bet. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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