The Department of Justice on Tuesday fired its latest salvo in the Trump administration’s battle for control of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, suing three members of the board and calling them “usurpers” in the lawsuit.
The CPB, which oversees and distributes funding for public radio and television, has been locked in a legal standoff with President Donald Trump for months following an executive order that ended federal funding for National Public Radio (NPR) and the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS). The budget bill also aims to permanently defund the CPB and to claw back some $1.1 billion in already appropriated funding for fiscal years 2026 and 2027. CPB president and CEO Patricia Harrison has publicly contested the order, saying the CPB is “not a federal executive agency subject to the President’s authority.”
Trump tried to fire three board members, Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group chairman and CEO Tom Rothman, former attorney Laura Ross, and veteran public policy consultant Diane Kaplan, in April. The CPB issued a statement on June 8, claiming a court ruling confirmed its independence and their standing as board members. The CPB has continued to operate, convening meetings and voting on board matters.
Now, the DOJ is seeking to forcibly remove the trio, claiming they have “usurped their former offices as board members of the CPB” in continuing to act as board members.
The DOJ cited a legal tool in the lawsuit called “quo warranto,” which began as a common law writ in medieval England, the complaint states. The quo warranto action is “used to inquire into the authority by which a public office is held or a franchise is claimed,” the suit states.
According to the complaint, the quo warranto action can be used to oust people who wrongfully hold public or corporate office and refers to a 1928 case involving the government of the Philippines, which was formerly a territory of the United States. The DOJ’s suit claims the June ruling was a loss for the CPB and that Rothman, Ross and Kaplan are acting “as if the Court had ruled in their favor, instead of ruling against them.”
The suit claims the three have “usurped” their office.
“The subjects of this complaint have continued to operate in office despite their removal and subsequent failure to obtain legal relief protecting their old positions,” the DOJ said in a statement. “This litigation reflects the Department’s ongoing commitment to protecting the President’s core Article II powers, which include the authority to make personnel decisions regarding those occupying federal offices.”
Sony and the CPB did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
