'Important Victory' for Artists, Rule of Law, and Free Speech as Judge Rules Against Trump on NEA

https://www.commondreams.org/news/nea-free-speech-trump

‘Important Victory’ for Artists, Rule of Law, and Free Speech as Judge Rules Against Trump on NEA

“At a time when the government is using its full weight to try to impose ideological conformity,” said an ACLU attorney, “this order is an important reminder that the First Amendment protects us from exactly that.”

JON QUEALLY
Sep 20, 2025

In another judicial rebuke to President Donald Trump’s effort to harm funding for the nation’s arts, a federal judge on Friday evening ruled against the president’s insider attack on the National Endowment for the Arts by blocking grant applications from artists or organizations that don’t strictly adhere to the president’s right-wing ideology on gender.

Ruling in favor of several arts organizations that sued the NEA earlier this year over the policy change, US District Court Judge William E. Smith, appointed by President George W. Bush and serving in Rhode Island, said the grant restrictions ran afoul of federal statute and the US Constitution.

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