ABC filed a First Amendment lawsuit against the Federal Communications Commission on Tuesday, asking a federal judge to stop the agency’s early review of eight Disney-owned station licenses. The complaint landed in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia and names the commission and Chairman Brendan Carr among the defendants.
The filing accuses the Trump administration of running a retaliatory campaign against the network because it disapproves of ABC’s programming. ABC’s lawyers wrote that the company came to court reluctantly, with no way to end the pressure short of total capitulation. The suit calls the license proceeding an “existential threat” and seeks a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction blocking any further action on the renewal applications.
The dispute traces to late April, when the FCC’s Media Bureau ordered Disney’s eight owned-and-operated stations to file renewal applications years ahead of schedule. Those stations serve New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Houston, Raleigh-Durham and Fresno. Broadcast licenses run in eight-year terms, and the first of ABC’s was not set to expire until 2028. The FCC has not ordered an early renewal filing in decades. Disney submitted the applications in May under protest, calling the order unlawful and unconstitutional.
The FCC has said its review stems from a year-long investigation into Disney’s diversity, equity and inclusion practices. ABC’s lawyers point to the timing instead. The order arrived one day after Trump publicly demanded that ABC fire Jimmy Kimmel over an April monologue joke about Melania Trump. The complaint’s third paragraph reproduces a Trump social media post calling for ABC’s licenses to be terminated over what he described as entirely negative coverage.
That followed the September 2025 standoff in which ABC briefly pulled Kimmel off the air after Carr said on a podcast that companies could handle the situation the easy way or the hard way. Disney reinstated the show after public backlash, though Sinclair and Nexstar stations held out for several days. The lawsuit quotes Carr’s remark directly.
A bipartisan group of former FCC chairs and senior officials filed comments in July calling the review an assault on free speech dressed up as regulatory process. Justice Neil Gorsuch cited the Kimmel episode in a recent concurrence. Senator John Kennedy, a Republican, told an FCC official the agency now scares him.
Disney CEO Josh D’Amaro, who succeeded Bob Iger in March, addressed the fight at D23 last week. He said the company is principled on the issue, will stand up for journalistic integrity, and will not be told how to run that part of its business. The FCC’s comment record closed August 5 with more than 145,000 filings. Carr has set no timeline for a decision.
Sources: Deadline | Variety | NPR | CNBC | NBC News | PBS NewsHour | CNN | TheWrap
gfpods.com 
Leave a comment