ABC, in a new filing in its First Amendment lawsuit against the FCC, claims that the agency’s early-license renewal demand for its local TV stations was done in such a way as to circumvent “judicial review.”
On Aug. 18, ABC sued the FCC and chairman Brendan Carr, a Trump loyalist, alleging the commission was waging an “extraordinary assault” on its First Amendment rights through the implicit threat of revoking its broadcast licenses for eight owned-and-operated stations. The FCC insists its order requiring ABC to apply for early license renewals was initiated from the agency’s investigation into alleged diversity, equity and inclusion employment practices at Disney and ABC.
At an Oct. 6 hearing, Judge Loren AliKhan of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, who is hearing the case, instructed the FCC to submit a supplemental filing “on the list of alternative tools to compel discovery” in its DEI investigation into Disney and ABC other than early license renewals.
On Monday, ABC responded to the FCC’s filing. The FCC had argued at the hearing that “‘the license renewal process is not about the licenses,’ but rather an attempt to deal with what they claim to be a discovery deficiency” in the DEI probe, the network says in the fling. “But their supplemental briefing only confirms what they conceded at the hearing: there are ‘a number of different tools’ by which the agency could have addressed the purported discovery deficiency.”
ABC continued: “These are not merely ‘theoretical[]’ tools… they have been used by the agency for decades. Yet the agency tried none of those less intrusive tools here, instead taking the unprecedented step of calling for early license renewal of all eight ABC-owned stations at once. Defendants’ own admissions leave no doubt as to why — Defendants sought to inflict maximal coercive pressure on the media company whose speech the Administration sought to curb, while deliberately evading judicial review.”
ABC has previously said that in the FCC’s DEI probe, it has produced over 11,000 pages of responsive documents “on a mutually agreed schedule” and that the agency’s Enforcement Bureau “has never suggested its existing tools are insufficient for whatever it is investigating.”
The FCC explained to the court that using an administrative subpoena or a monetary forfeiture order to compel Disney and ABC to produce documentation in the DEI probe would require the Trump administration to seek enforcement in federal court.
“That Defendants openly describe judicial review as an obstacle demonstrates what Plaintiffs have been saying all along: shielding their unconstitutional campaign against ABC from judicial review is part of Defendants’ retaliatory strategy,” ABC said in its filing.
Meanwhile, the FCC omitted several other tools at the agency’s disposal for rectifying the supposed discovery deficiency in the DEI investigation, according to ABC. First, the agency can issue cease-and-desist orders requiring a party to comply with FCC rules or orders. Second, the agency can issue formal or informal warning letters threatening consequences if a violation is not remedied. And third, the FCC can negotiate a consent decree with the broadcaster to redress any violations and resolve an enforcement matter.
A ruling is expected once the court has reviewed the additional submissions from both parties.
The FCC’s order in April 2026 to require ABC to file for early license renewal of its TV stations came one day after Donald Trump and Melania Trump publicly criticized a joke Jimmy Kimmel made on his show (Kimmel said Melania had “a glow like an expectant widow”) — and Trump demanded that ABC fire Kimmel.
On April 28, the FCC’s Media Bureau issued an order requiring Disney “to file license renewals for all of their licensed TV stations within 30 days.” The station’s licenses were otherwise not due for renewal until between 2028 and 2031. When Carr was asked at an April 30 press conference at the FCC if Kimmel’s joke would play a part in the FCC’s review of the ABC licenses, he responded that Disney is “going to have to come in and demonstrate that they’ve been operating in the public interest.”
Separately, the FCC earlier this year initiated a formal review of whether ABC daytime talk show “The View” qualifies for an exemption to the agency’s equal-time rules for political candidates. In July, Carr said the FCC will consider ABC’s decision to not carry a live broadcast of President Trump’s speech about U.S. election security as part of its early review of its broadcast licenses.
However, according to the FCC, none of those issues prompted the commission to launch an early review of the ABC licenses. In its motion seeking to have ABC’s suit dismissed, the FCC said that Carr announced the investigation into Disney and ABC’s DEI practices “long before making any of the statements about ‘The View,’ Jimmy Kimmel, or President Trump’s July 2026 public address on which Plaintiffs focus their narrative in this case.”