Further escalating its battle with the Trump administration, ABC on Tuesday took the rare step of suing the Federal Communications Commission on First Amendment grounds, saying the agency’s demand for early review of its broadcast licenses posed an “existential threat” to the network.
In the lawsuit, ABC, its parent company Disney and the eight ABC-owned stations whose licenses are affected asked a federal court to stop the early renewal proceedings.
The FCC under Chairman Brendan Carr, an ally of President Donald Trump, had ordered the early review in April — itself a rare move — of all eight licenses owned by ABC, years before they are set to expire. Licenses are issued for eight-year periods. The FCC cited the network’s diversity and inclusion practices as a reason, but the development came shortly after a joke by ABC’s late-night host Jimmy Kimmel — an outspoken Trump critic — had infuriated the president, who has called for Kimmel’s firing.
“Again and again, the Administration has attacked ABC’s speech — the stories its journalists report and the viewpoints its network programs air,” the network alleged in its lawsuit Tuesday. “Over time, those attacks have escalated into express demands that ABC be stripped of its broadcast licenses because of its speech.”
“Facing this existential threat,” it added, “Plaintiffs have no choice but to seek redress from the judicial branch for the Administration’s blatant retaliation for their First Amendment speech.”
It said ABC had “no alternative means to eliminate these ongoing and immediate threats other than total capitulation to the Administration’s demands.” It asked the court to “immediately enjoin Defendants from taking or threatening to take any action against Plaintiffs in relation to the early license renewal applications.”
There are already clashes between ABC and the administration
The early license review is only one part of a long-simmering confrontation between ABC and the FCC.
The network has also been fighting Carr’s efforts to make the morning talk show “The View,”whose hosts and guests are often critical of Trump, subject to equal-time rules. That’s a question ABC says the agency itself decided — in the network’s favor — more than two decades ago. ABC argues “The View” is a bona fide news program, meaning it’s exempt from equal time rules, which require granting equal airtime to competing candidates for office.
The ABC lawsuit Tuesday also spoke of broad ramifications that go well beyond one network.
“The consequences of the Administration’s campaign against free speech reach well beyond ABC,” it said. “If the Administration gets its way, the message to every media company in the country will be unmistakable: tell only the stories the Administration deems favorable, or face the coercive machinery of the federal government. In such a world, the press could in no way be described as free.”
It added: “The FCC Chairman has left little doubt that this is his goal.”
The lawsuit also quoted Carr as saying, when Kimmel made comments that angered the administration, “We can do this the easy way or the hard way. These companies can find ways . . . to take action . . . on Kimmel, or there is going to be additional work for the FCC ahead.”
Carr, a longtime FCC commissioner, was named chairman by Trump in November 2025. He has indeed made it clear that he is considering revoking ABC’s licenses, or trying to, in what would surely be a drawn-out legal process.
Longtime free-speech attorney Floyd Abrams noted that tensions between the press and the commission are not new — but have never been this pronounced.
“There has long been a level of tension between the broadcast media, which seeks full First Amendment protection, and the FCC,” Abrams wrote in an email to The Associated Press. “But not until the Trump Administration has the government so directly, so deliberately and so dangerously sought to limit the freedom of the broadcast press to cover and discuss the news.”
The lone Democrat on the FCC praises the lawsuit
The sole Democrat on the commission, Anna Gomez, commended ABC and Disney for pushing back against the FCC’s actions.
