A federal judge in Washington, D.C. heard about two hours of arguments on Tuesday, October 6, 2026 in the ABC FCC lawsuit and ended the hearing without a ruling. U.S. District Judge Loren AliKhan asked both sides for additional written submissions, with deadlines running through October 14.
ABC, which Disney owns, is asking the court to halt the Federal Communications Commission’s early license renewal proceeding against its eight owned stations. The FCC wants the case dismissed, arguing in part that the early renewal order is tied to its investigation of Disney’s diversity, equity and inclusion practices. A large part of Tuesday’s session focused on a jurisdictional question the network has to get past first.
The Jurisdiction Question Comes First
The government’s lawyers argued that ABC had to exhaust its options inside the agency before suing, and that any challenge belongs before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, not a district court. Assistant U.S. Attorney Dimitar P. Georgiev, arguing for the FCC, described ABC as “a regulated entity being subjected to regulatory inquiry” and said the network could have appealed the Media Bureau’s early renewal order to the full commission.
ABC’s lead attorney, Beth Wilkinson, answered that the commission could simply deny that appeal, which would let Chairman Brendan Carr hold up the proceedings and leave the stations facing months or even years of uncertainty.
ABC Argues The Chill Is Already Here
Wilkinson told the judge the threat to the licenses has already changed how ABC weighs its coverage and content. “We are watching everything we do,” she said, pointing to President Trump’s call in July for the network to lose its licenses after it did not air one of his speeches, which she said “brings out anger in the administration and retaliation from the agency.” She called the loss of a broadcast license a “death penalty” for a station and compared ABC’s position to people on a guillotine during the French Revolution, wondering whether the blade will come down.
One example she cited was The View. Wilkinson said the show has stopped running clips of political candidates in its “Hot Topics” segment this election cycle over concern about the equal time rule, which requires broadcasters to offer comparable airtime to rivals when they feature a qualified candidate. The FCC opened an inquiry in February after Texas Senate candidate James Talarico appeared on the show, and ABC has argued The View falls under the rule’s exemption for news programming.
What The Judge Wants To Know
AliKhan did not signal which way she is leaning, but she pressed the government for more detail on what other options the FCC had during its DEI investigation besides ordering early license renewals. Wilkinson told the court that investigation had come down to a discovery dispute over hiring and employment documents, and that the early renewal order was a pretextual response. The order came right after President Trump’s call for Jimmy Kimmel to be fired.
Disney filed the suit in August, calling the license review a retaliatory campaign against ABC and asking for a temporary restraining order and a preliminary injunction. AliKhan has yet to rule on either that request or the FCC’s motion to dismiss.
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