Attorney General Phil Weiser co-leads state AGs in support of lawsuits challenging public media funding cuts

June 20, 2025 (DENVER) – Attorney General Phil Weiser today filed a court brief along with 22 other attorneys general in support of two lawsuits brought by National Public Radio and the Public Broadcasting Service that seek to block proposed funding cuts to their organizations and local affiliates.

“Public radio and television connect millions of people in Colorado and across the country to critical information they might not otherwise be able to access,” said Attorney General Weiser. “Cuts to public broadcasting won’t just rob us of programming many of us cherish, they will create real danger by reducing our ability to get critical emergency notifications to the public, especially to people in rural and tribal communities. I am proud to stand with my fellow attorneys general to urge the courts to block yet another reckless, illegal action by the Trump administration.”

At issue in the case is an executive order signed by President Trump on May 1 directing the board of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and executive branch agencies to end federal funding for NPR and PBS. On May 27, NPR and three Colorado public radio stations—Colorado Public Radio, Aspen Public Radio, and tribal-serving KSUT in southwestern Colorado—sued to block the proposed cuts. PBS and a Minnesota-based affiliate filed a separate lawsuit on May 30.

The coalition of attorneys general led by Colorado, Arizona, Minnesota, and Rhode Island argue that public broadcast stations serve a critical role in delivering information to the public and the proposed cuts would gravely harm Americans. The coalition says the funding cuts would create risks to public safety and erode trust by threatening coverage of local news, creating disruptions to the distribution of emergency notifications, reducing critical educational services, and limiting public media’s unique reach to rural and tribal audiences.

In the brief, filed concurrently today in both lawsuits, the coalition outlines some of the harms people in their states will face if the cuts move forward. These include threats to emergency notification systems like the Emergency Alert System, or EAS. Many states, including Colorado, rely on public broadcast stations to serve as primary or secondary stations to deliver EAS messages to the public during emergencies. Additionally, other infrastructure provided by NPR and PBS serve as important backups for emergency notifications in the event of electrical or internet outages.

Other emergency notifications disseminated via public media include Amber Alerts for abducted children, Blue Alerts for notifying the public of suspects who have killed or seriously injured law enforcement officers, Silver Alerts used when older people or people with developmental disabilities go missing, and Missing Indigenous Person Alerts that are critical for tribal communities.

The brief also outlines how public broadcasters serve important educational roles, such as when Rocky Mountain PBS partnered with the Colorado Department of Education during the pandemic to provide on-air direct instruction programming called “Colorado Classroom” to 250,000 students when schools were closed.

Finally, the brief highlights the disproportionate threats to rural and tribal areas posed by the cuts: “Each of the [states] contain rural population areas that support economic and cultural contributions far bigger than their population density alone might indicate…12% of Colorado’s population reside in rural areas accounting for a majority of the state’s land area. Colorado is also home to two Tribal Nations.”

Read the brief filed today in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia (PDF).

Joining Attorney General Weiser in leading the brief are Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, and Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha. Joining them are leaders from California, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Vermont, Washington, and Wisconsin.

For more on Attorney General Weiser’s efforts to defend Colorado from illegal federal actions, visit coag.gov/defending-colorado.

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Media Contact:
Elliot Goldbaum
Community Education & Communications Manager
(720) 508-6769 office
elliot.goldbaum@coag.gov