Editor’s Note: Aspen Public Radio reports on itself as it does any other institution, and no administrative staff reviewed this story before it was published.
NPR, Colorado Public Radio, KSUT Public Radio and Aspen Public Radio filed a lawsuit this morning against the Trump administration, claiming its executive order on May 1 was unconstitutional.
The order directed the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and all federal agencies to cease funding NPR and PBS; it also directed all local stations, including Aspen Public Radio, to stop using federal grants to pay for acquiring NPR programming — claiming the organization is "biased."
The four plaintiffs say the order violates their First Amendment rights on multiple fronts and lacks any constitutional or statutory authority. In the lawsuit, they also invoke Congress’ passage of the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967, which denies any government direction, supervision, or control over public telecommunications.
The lawsuit states, “Congress, through the Public Broadcasting Act, has expressly prohibited the actions directed by the Order — and no provision of the Constitution allows the President to override Congress’s will.”
Furthermore, they argue the order deprives NPR of property rights by denying funding to operate its satellite system, impeding NPR’s ability to perform its contractual obligations with local stations without due process.
The lawsuit cites the Supreme Court’s opinion in a case from 2024, Moody v. NetChoice, LLC, where justices said “it is no job for government to decide what counts as the right balance of private expression—to “un-bias” what it thinks biased, rather than to leave such judgments to speakers and their audiences."
In a press release Tuesday morning, Aspen Public Radio, CPR, and KSUT said, “This is not about politics — it is about principle.”
“When the government tries to limit press freedom or control the flow of information, we have not only the right, but the obligation, to speak out and defend our rights that make independent journalism possible.”
It’s not entirely clear why these three stations are involved in the lawsuit, however, the press release states, “these participating Colorado stations reflect the diversity of public radio across the country.” CPR is a statewide station with several podcast services, KSUT is one of only eight tribal radio stations in the country, and Aspen Public Radio airs approximately 92 hours of NPR content weekly to its rural audience.
By preventing local stations from using their CPB funding for NPR programming, the lawsuit argues Trump is interfering with their editorial decision making.
Aspen Public Radio receives approximately $210,000 from CPB, or 10.8% of its annual budget, according to the lawsuit. CPR receives $1.4 million from CPB, or 6% of its overall budget, while KSUT is granted roughly $333,000, or 19% of its annual budget.
NPR says losing its direct funding from CPB would be “catastrophic,” not only threatening its journalistic initiatives but also its satellite system, which enables the organization to broadcast nationwide.
Since Trump’s executive order, the National Endowment of the Arts revoked an existing grant with NPR, deeming the organization ineligible for future grants and marking one of the organization’s first financial losses from Trump’s executive order.
Aspen Public Radio’s Executive Director Breeze Richardson and its Board of Directors would not comment on the case this morning, citing pending litigation.
