Disney-owned ABC has filed a First Amendment lawsuit against the Federal Communications Commission, escalating a dispute over the FCC’s decision to require eight ABC-owned stations to submit their broadcast licenses for review roughly two years ahead of schedule.
ABC’s lawyers argue the network is being punished for its editorial decisions and news coverage. According to the filing, the Trump administration has “attacked ABC’s speech” on multiple occasions, including “the stories its journalists report and the viewpoints its network programs air.”
Per Variety, the filing claims those actions have since “escalated into express demands that ABC be stripped of its broadcast licenses because of its speech.” ABC also said it has “no alternative means to eliminate these ongoing and immediate threats other than total capitulation to the Administration’s demands.”
The lawsuit follows several months of disputes between ABC and the FCC. In April, the FCC ordered early license renewal reviews for eight Disney-owned ABC stations. Those eight-year licenses were not scheduled for their normal review until October 2028. The FCC tied the early review process to its investigation into Disney’s diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives.
The timing of the order also drew attention because it came one day after President Donald Trump publicly called for Jimmy Kimmel Live! host Jimmy Kimmel to be fired following a joke involving First Lady Melania Trump.
ABC ultimately submitted the requested license renewal applications but objected to the process, calling it a “threat to the First Amendment that this Commission and this proceeding must not be permitted to normalize.”
The early reviews have faced criticism outside of ABC as well. A group of U.S. senators previously called on the FCC to reverse its decision, describing the order as an example of using the agency’s licensing authority against broadcasters whose editorial decisions displease the president. Even former FCC officials have criticized the proceedings, calling the early license review “an assault on free speech disguised as regulatory process.”
This isn’t ABC’s first First Amendment dispute with the FCC this year. In May, the network also accused the agency of violating its rights following scrutiny involving the daytime talk show The View. The newly filed lawsuit now moves the ongoing dispute into federal court, with ABC seeking to stop the FCC’s early license renewal proceedings.
