The Corporation for Public Broadcasting is reaffirming the independence of its board of directors and reinstating three members removed by the Trump administration, despite a federal judge’s decision to deny immediate injunctive relief in the high-profile dispute.
On June 8, US District Court Judge Randolph Moss denied CPB’s request for a preliminary injunction that would have blocked the White House from enforcing the termination of board members Laura Ross, Thomas Rothman, and Diane Kaplan. The Trump administration attempted to remove the three by email on April 28, in a move that would have left the CPB board with only two active members.
While the judge did not issue the requested injunction, CPB is emphasizing what it views as an important affirmation from the court: that Congress intended the Corporation to operate independently of executive control, and that its internal governance, including board composition, is protected by statute and nonprofit bylaws.
In its public response, CPB pointed to language from Judge Moss’s opinion stating that “Congress intended to preclude the President (or any subordinate officials acting at his direction) from directing, supervising, or controlling the Corporation.” The court further noted that CPB, as a private nonprofit entity governed under the D.C. Nonprofit Corporation Act, is entitled to establish its own removal procedures through its bylaws. Those bylaws now prohibit any individual or authority, including the President, from removing a director without a two-thirds vote of the remaining board.
Based on that recognition, CPB President and CEO Patricia Harrison has taken action to formally reaffirm the status of Ross, Rothman, and Kaplan as active members of the board.
“We are very pleased that the Court recognized CPB is an independent, nonprofit corporation, free from governmental control or influence,” said Harrison. “CPB, board and management, look forward to continuing our work with policymakers and other stakeholders to ensure accurate, unbiased, and nonpartisan public media is available for all Americans.”
The Corporation has maintained that the April 28 dismissals violated both the Public Broadcasting Act and its nonprofit charter. CPB filed suit two days after the email removals, arguing that federal law protects the Corporation from direct political interference, particularly in matters related to its leadership and content decisions.
Though Judge Moss agreed that CPB’s structure is intentionally insulated from government supervision, he ruled that the plaintiffs had not demonstrated a strong likelihood of success on the merits nor the kind of irreparable harm that would justify emergency relief. The Court determined that the D.C. Nonprofit Corporation Act permits an appointing authority to remove directors unless corporate bylaws say otherwise, and at the time of the removal, CPB’s bylaws had not yet been amended to restrict that power.
Since then, CPB’s board has updated its bylaws to explicitly bar any removal of directors without a two-thirds vote. Moss acknowledged the validity of this bylaw change and noted that it may prevent similar actions in the future, but said it did not apply retroactively to the April action.
Still, the ruling does not resolve the underlying legal question of whether the President has statutory or constitutional authority to remove CPB board members.
CPB distributes more than $500 million a year to public broadcasters, including local PBS and NPR stations. While NPR receives only about 1% of its funding directly from CPB, its member stations rely on the Corporation for approximately 10% of their budgets.
