The Corporation for Public Broadcasting filed suit against Donald Trump and other members of his administration for their efforts to remove three members of its board, including Sony’s Tom Rothman. The corporation, the independent entity set up to distribute federal funds to public broadcasting entities, is seeking a temporary restraining order to stop Trump’s firing […]The Corporation for Public Broadcasting filed suit against Donald Trump and other members of his administration for their efforts to remove three members of its board, including Sony’s Tom Rothman. The corporation, the independent entity set up to distribute federal funds to public broadcasting entities, is seeking a temporary restraining order to stop Trump’s firing
The Corporation for Public Broadcasting filed suit against Donald Trump and other members of his administration for their efforts to remove three members of its board, including Sony’s Tom Rothman.
The corporation, the independent entity set up to distribute federal funds to public broadcasting entities, is seeking a temporary restraining order to stop Trump’s firing of Rothman and board members Laura Ross and Diane Kaplan.
CPB’s attorneys wrote, “Put simply, Congress conceived CPB as a vehicle for infusing federal money into public broadcasting without the introduction of government direction or control, with Congress reserving for itself the oversight responsibility for the CPB by, among other things, controlling the appropriations for CPB and public broadcasting. Moreover, Congress protected the CPB from the executive branch by withholding from CPB any form, pure or quasi, of legislative, judicial, or regulatory power.”
Read the Corporation for Public Broadcasting lawsuit.
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According to the lawsuit, Trent Morse, deputy director of presidential personnel, sent an email to the three board members asserting that Trump had terminated their positions. But the CPB’s legal team wrote that the corporation was created by Congress to be a private entity to “afford maximum protection from extraneous interference and control.”
They noted that CPB board members are not officers of the United States, and are not within the removal provisions of Article II of the Constitution. The CPB, they wrote, “is a private, non-profit corporation that is not subject to control by the Executive Branch.”
Trump’s effort to remove three of the five board members comes as his administration has waged an attack on public broadcasting, with reports that the White House will seek congressional action to rescind public media funding, which includes stations and PBS and NPR.
Trump also has removed Democratic commissioners at the Federal Trade Commission, as the administration seeks to eliminate opposition to its agenda. Trump also fired Biden-appointed members of the board of the Kennedy Center.
Rothman and Kaplan were appointed to the board by President Joe Biden in 2022, with their terms expiring in 2026. Ross was first appointed to the board in 2018 by Trump and then reappointed by Biden in 2022, with a term expiring in 2028.
More to come.