"At a key court hearing in Washington, D.C., NPR's lawyers accused President Trump of acting illegally on May 1 when he issued an executive order demanding an end to all federal subsidies for NPR and PBS. The president's order and materials that accompany it accuse the public broadcasters of ideological bias, in NPR's case, due to its news coverage. The networks deny this."
""The executive order flagrantly violates NPR and its member stations' First Amendment rights," NPR's lead trial attorney, the noted free speech lawyer Theodore J. Boutrous, argued in court. "He's not making any secret of his views." Under the Constitution, the U.S. government cannot discriminate against people on the basis of the views they express; for news outlets, this extends to news coverage."
The Trump administration launched investigations, restricted press access in government buildings, and created websites criticizing news coverage of the president. The New York Times filed suit against the Pentagon's new press policy, while NPR challenged an executive order that sought to end all federal subsidies for NPR and PBS. NPR's lawyers argued that the order, titled 'Ending Taxpayer Subsidy of Biased Media,' discriminates based on viewpoint and flagrantly violates First Amendment protections. The lead trial attorney argued the president openly expressed his views about public broadcasters' alleged ideological bias. Federal government lawyers contend that motivations for the order extend beyond news coverage. A summary judgment hearing aimed to define the scope of a potential trial.
Read at www.npr.org
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