UPDATE, August 22: Judge AliKhan denied Disney’s request for an emergency hearing on Thursday, August 20, setting briefs for September 24 and a hearing the week of October 5. Full details in our report on the ruling and what it means for the ABC licenses. The original story follows as published.
Disney and ABC sued the Federal Communications Commission on Tuesday, filing a First Amendment lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. that accuses the Trump administration of waging a “retaliatory campaign” against the network over its news coverage and programming. The company is asking a federal judge for a temporary restraining order and a preliminary injunction to halt the FCC’s early license renewal proceeding against the eight television stations Disney owns outright.
The First Early Renewal Order In Decades
The dispute centers on an April order from the FCC requiring Disney’s eight owned-and-operated ABC stations to file their broadcast license renewals years ahead of schedule, between two and five years before those licenses were actually set to expire. FCC licenses run on eight year cycles and are virtually never revoked, and the commission had not issued an early renewal order in decades before this one. The FCC has publicly tied the accelerated review to its ongoing investigation into Disney’s diversity, equity and inclusion practices, but the order landed after President Trump called for Jimmy Kimmel to be fired over a joke about the first lady, and FCC Chairman Brendan Carr has separately targeted both Jimmy Kimmel Live and The View.
Disney’s complaint argues the administration “has waged a retaliatory campaign against ABC” because it disapproves of what the network broadcasts, and that the FCC is abusing government power through pretextual regulatory investigations. The filing warns that the campaign is aimed at more than one company, arguing the real message is addressed to every broadcaster in the country and that the ultimate cost is borne by the press as a whole.
The FCC Could Act At Any Moment
The timing is not academic. The final replies in the license renewal proceeding closed on August 5, and Disney told the court the FCC could act at any moment to order formal hearings on the renewals, an unprecedented step that could ultimately determine whether the stations stay on the air. Carr has said the agency would look at the record and decide on next steps but has given no timeline, which is exactly the uncertainty Disney is asking the court to end. The case moved quickly on its first day: it was assigned to U.S. District Judge Loren AliKhan, who ordered both sides to file a joint status report by Thursday proposing hearing dates on the restraining order request, and directed the FCC to notify the court if it moves to begin the license proceedings in the meantime.
The lawsuit drew immediate support from inside the building. Anna Gomez, the commission’s only Democratic member, said she was glad Disney had stepped up against what she described as government intimidation of broadcasters. The FCC pushed back through a spokesperson, saying all broadcasters have a legal obligation to operate in the public interest and that the commission has been examining the discrimination claims against Disney for over a year. The fight has been building all summer, and it comes after 22 advocacy groups publicly urged the FCC to back off the license review in July. Disney received thousands of supportive public comments in the proceeding, and even some conservative groups warned that the precedent could eventually be turned against right-leaning media.
This is one of the most aggressive legal challenges any media company has mounted against the administration, and it lands the same week Rosie O’Donnell used a Jimmy Kimmel Live guest hosting spot to target the president directly on ABC’s own air.
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