On May 30, 2025, the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) and one of its local affiliates filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration in the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. The legal action challenges Executive Order 14290, which seeks to eliminate all federal funding to PBS and National Public Radio (NPR).
PBS contends that the executive order infringes upon its First Amendment rights and exceeds the president’s authority by attempting to influence the content and funding decisions of public broadcasting.
The lawsuit argues that the president lacks the power to interfere with the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), a non-governmental entity responsible for allocating approximately $535 million in federal funding annually to NPR and PBS. PBS, which receives about 15% of its total revenue from federal sources, asserts that the defunding effort threatens the editorial independence of public television and the autonomy of its member stations.
This legal move follows a similar lawsuit filed by NPR earlier in the week, as well as a prior lawsuit by the CPB against the Trump administration for attempting to remove three of its board members. PBS CEO Paula Kerger previously indicated the organization’s readiness to defend against political interference, emphasizing the importance of maintaining independent public broadcasting.
The executive order is part of a broader initiative by the Trump administration to target media organizations it perceives as biased, including efforts to defund the Voice of America and its parent agency.
