Federal Grant Recipients Take Note—The Government May Be Attempting to Narrow Your Organization’s First Amendment Free Speech Rights by Deeming You a “Contractor”
Venable – Since January 20, 2025, several grant recipients have filed lawsuits challenging the federal government’s decisions to withhold funding and/or terminate grant agreements. In many cases, grantees have alleged that the government’s actions violated their right to freedom of speech under the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Recipients should be aware that, in responding to these allegations, the government has recently asserted that grant recipients have narrower speech rights than the government acknowledged just a few years ago in similar litigation. Although the government’s new legal theory—which would graft limitations on contractors’ free speech rights onto grant recipients—has not been uniformly adopted, it may gain purchase as these cases move through the court system.