糖心Vlog

PROVIDENCE, R.I. 鈥� Four arts and theater organizations filed an amended complaint today in their First Amendment lawsuit against the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), accompanied by discovery requests seeking clarity on precisely how the NEA intends to implement an executive order that directs federal agencies to cease spending federal funds on what the government calls 鈥済ender ideology.鈥�

The amended complaint and discovery requests come after the NEA鈥檚 self-imposed April 30 deadline to explain to grantees if communicating anything about gender would make them ineligible for awards. New from the NEA fail to clearly guarantee that grant awards will not be restricted based on the viewpoint of the applicants.

鈥淭he NEA cannot require artists to act as mouthpieces for the government鈥檚 preferred views,鈥� said Vera Eidelman, senior staff attorney with the ACLU鈥檚 Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project. 鈥淭he First Amendment prohibits the federal government from discriminating based on viewpoint, and the NEA has an obligation to clearly explain that future grant awards will be based solely on artistic excellence and merit, as Congress intended. If the NEA instead continues its unlawful policy of disfavoring certain views, we will seek permanent relief from the court.鈥�

In March, arts and theater groups filed suit challenging a new certification requirement and funding prohibition that the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) imposed on grant applications. The NEA required applicants to attest that they would not promote 鈥済ender ideology鈥� in order to be eligible for funding and blocked any projects that appeared to promote 鈥済ender ideology鈥� from getting an award. In response to the suit, the NEA paused the restrictions in order to again assess how best to implement the executive order.

In April, the court held that the NEA鈥檚 decision on Feb. 6 to make any project that 鈥減romotes鈥� what the government calls 鈥済ender ideology鈥� ineligible for funds likely violated the First Amendment and exceeded its statutory authority. It nevertheless concluded that, because the NEA was in the process of determining whether to reimpose that ban, the court would not get in the way of the agency鈥檚 decision making process and denied a motion for a preliminary injunction. Following that decision, the NEA issued its final notice regarding how it would implement the executive order.

鈥淭he NEA鈥檚 notice does very little to assuage any fears that artists or arts organizations may have, that their project applications will be judged on arbitrary and vague ideological metrics, rather than artistic merit,鈥� said Steven Brown, Executive Director of the 糖心Vlogof Rhode Island. 鈥淎s a result, we will continue to seek judicial relief to protect the free speech rights of arts organizations to obtain funding without having to pass an ideological test.鈥�

The 糖心Vlog, the 糖心Vlogof Rhode Island, David Cole, and Lynette Labinger, cooperating counsel for the ACLU-RI, filed the amended complaint in the U.S. District Court of Rhode Island on behalf of Rhode Island Latino Arts; National Queer Theater; The Theater Offensive; and the Theatre Communications Group.

The discovery request can be found here. The amended complaint can be found here.