NPR and three Colorado public radio stations are suing to stop President Trump’s executive order that aims to keep federal funding from going to the network and PBS.

The lawsuit, filed Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, argues that the order violates the First Amendment and the Public Broadcasting Act.

“The Order’s objectives could not be clearer: the Order aims to punish NPR for the content of news and other programming the President dislikes and chill the free exercise of First Amendment rights by NPR and individual public radio stations across the country,” NPR’s lawsuit said.

“The Order is textbook retaliation and viewpoint-based discrimination in violation of the First Amendment, and it interferes with NPR’s and the Local Member Stations’ freedom of expressive association and editorial discretion.”

In an emailed statement, White House Principal Deputy Press Secretary Harrison Fields said CPB is “creating media to support a particular political party on the taxpayers’ dime. Therefore, the President is exercising his lawful authority to limit funding to NPR and PBS. The President was elected with a mandate to ensure efficient use of taxpayer dollars, and he will continue to use his lawful authority to achieve that objective.”

In addition to NPR, the plaintiffs in the lawsuit include Aspen Public Radio, Colorado Public Radio and KSUT Public Radio in Ignacio, Colo. They are suing Trump and other administration officials and agencies. CPB is also a defendant “solely for the purpose of obtaining complete relief,” the lawsuit said.

The May 1 executive order, titled “ Ending Taxpayer Subsidization of Biased Media ,” instructed executive agencies and CPB’s board to stop federal funding for NPR and PBS. It also called for CPB to stop “indirect funding” by ensuring that public stations and others that receive CPB funds do not use federal dollars to pay NPR and PBS.

“At the very least, Americans have the right to expect that if their tax dollars fund public broadcasting at all, they fund only fair, accurate, unbiased, and nonpartisan news coverage,” the order said. “No media outlet has a constitutional right to taxpayer subsidies, and the Government is entitled to determine which categories of activities to subsidize.”

NPR argues in its lawsuit that retaliation is the order’s “plain purpose,” a violation of the First Amendment.

“[The order] aims to silence NPR’s speech because the President dislikes the balance of viewpoints expressed in NPR’s programming,” the lawsuit also argues.

Additionally, the order infringes on First Amendment “freedom of association” for NPR and public radio stations by directing CPB to restrict money for stations that affiliate with NPR, the lawsuit said.

The member stations in the lawsuit are each receiving between $210,000 and $1.4 million from CPB in FY25, some of which must support obtaining or producing national programming, the lawsuit said.

By prohibiting stations from using funds for that purpose, Trump’s order “directly interferes with their journalistic and expressive independence and their editorial choices—requiring them to use grant funds received from the Corporation to acquire different national programming rather than NPR programming.”

The lawsuit also cites the Public Broadcasting Act, which prohibits U.S. departments, agencies, officers and employees from controlling CPB, its grantees and its bylaws.

“The Order nevertheless purports to issue commands to the Corporation—including that it cease all direct funding of NPR and PBS; prohibit local public radio and television stations from acquiring NPR or PBS programming; and amend its Eligibility Criteria to effectuate the Order’s directives,” the lawsuit said.

In an online statement on the lawsuit, NPR CEO Katherine Maher said the network stands “for constitutional rights, a free press, and an informed public, and we file today on their behalf.”