Jane Fonda celebrated a federal judge’s ruling to block President Donald Trump’s defunding of NPR and PBS on Tuesday, but looked ahead to the work still to come as the administration conducts “a broader and coordinated effort to erode press freedom.”
“Today’s victory reaffirms the possibility that we can win and safeguard the First Amendment,” the statement, via Fonda’s Committee for the First Amendment advocacy group, read. “Our work is far from over.”
U.S. District Court Judge Randolph Moss on Tuesday ruled that Trump’s executive order defunding NPR and PBS was “unlawful and unenforceable,” blocking the order’s implementation. Moss wrote in his 62-page order that, while the government was free to criticize NPR and PBS’ content, the First Amendment prohibited Trump from wielding the government’s “power of the purse” to engage in “viewpoint discrimination and retaliation of this type.”
“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, a 2014 Barack Obama appointee, wrote.
Trump’s defunding efforts date back to the beginning of his second term, when in May 2025 he signed an executive order mandating the Corporation for Public Broadcasting to cease distributing federal funds to NPR and PBS and for all federal agencies to end any “direct or indirect funding” for the outlets. The order claimed that neither NPR nor PBS “presents a fair, accurate, or unbiased portrayal of current events to taxpaying citizens.”
Both outlets sued the Trump administration later that month over the order, arguing the order violated the First Amendment. Moss agreed, pointing to the White House’s release of a fact sheet alongside the order that accused the outlets’ content of fueling “partisanship and left-wing propaganda,” among other episodes.
Fonda’s Committee for the First Amendment commended Moss’ ruling later on Tuesday, saying that Trump’s effort was a “resounding rejection of government retaliation against a free press.”
Read the statement in full below:
The First Amendment won today.
The Committee for the First Amendment commends US District Judge Randolph Moss’s ruling blocking the Trump Administration’s attempt to strip federal funding from NPR and PBS — a resounding rejection of government retaliation against a free press.
As Judge Randolph Moss made clear, President Trump’s Executive Order to strip NPR and PBS of federal funding because of their “left-wing” coverage is unconstitutional. The First Amendment, the court ruled, simply “does not tolerate viewpoint discrimination and retaliation of this type.”
While the Court’s ruling is a major victory for the First Amendment, it is crucial to remember that the Administration is conducting a broader and coordinated effort to erode press freedom, reshape the media, and bulldoze the First Amendment entirely. We see this plainly through the recent arrests of journalists, the targeting of artists who criticize the Administration, and the disintegration of an independent press through media mergers.
The Committee will continue standing against every effort to undermine the First Amendment — be it through political retaliation against journalists, media consolidation that erodes newsroom independence, or any abuse of power that threatens foundational freedom on which this country was built.
Today’s victory reaffirms the possibility that we can win and safeguard the First Amendment. Our work is far from over.
