Justice has once again offered a small victory in the cultural environment in his war against the Trump administration. A Federal Court of Rhode Island judged on September 18 that the new National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) policy which must now condition its subsidies to respect a presidential decree of January 2025 on “The ideology of the genre” violated the Constitution and could not be implemented.
Federal Institution relating to the Congress, the NEA had to apply the decree on February 6, by demanding subsidy applicants whom they certify not to promote “The ideology of the genre”under penalty of rejection of their file.
On March 6, several theaters of Rhode Island, represented by ACLU, had then initiated legal action against the NEA, arguing of a violation of the first and the fifth amendment, as well as the administrative procedure act (APA). The ACLU had requested a preliminary injunction, refused on April 3 to allow the agency to re -examine its position.
NEA had then a little modified its granting rules by claiming to examine the files “On a case -by -case basis” And “According to the artistic qualities of the project”but – and that is what justified the continuation of the procedure by the aclu – considering if the project “Promote the ideology of the genre”.
Smith judge appointed by former president George W. Bush ordered the agency not to apply the decree in its financing system, believing that the latter disadvantaged projects related to gender studies, in violation of the first amendment and the APA. In his decision, the court specifies: “The rules of the NEA constitute a restriction on the freedom of expression of artists, founded on the point of view of artists, because it attributes a negative weight to the expression of certain ideas on the question of gender identity. »»
