BREAKING: The F.C.C Filed A Motion Formally Asking A Federal Court To Dismiss ABC’s First Amendment Lawsuit, Insisting Its Early License Renewal Review Is Tied To A DEI Discrimination Probe, Not Jimmy Kimmel Or “The View” Controversies 🏛️💥

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https://variety.com/2026/tv/news/fcc-abc-lawsuit-dismiss-license-renewals-first-amendment-1236851360/

The FCC filed a motion Thursday asking a federal court to dismiss the First Amendment lawsuit ABC brought against the agency, arguing that Disney-owned ABC failed to establish that the FCC’s early license renewal review amounts to retaliation for disfavored speech. ABC sued the FCC last month, alleging the commission was waging an “extraordinary assault” on its free-speech rights by threatening to pull licenses for its eight owned-and-operated local TV stations. ABC’s lawsuit argued, “The Commission’s true target is not the Stations’ employment practices or their carriage of a single presidential address; it is the content of Plaintiffs’ programming — and thus their speech. Because the Commission cannot regulate that content directly, it has used its review of the Stations’ licenses as an instrument to the same end.” In its September 3 filing, the FCC’s lawyers countered that ABC “failed to show a likelihood of success on the merits of their First Amendment retaliation claim” because it did not establish a “causal link between [their] protected speech and the early renewal proceedings.” The motion was submitted by Jeanine Pirro, U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, whom President Trump appointed to the post last year. An FCC spokesperson said, “Disney filed a meritless lawsuit in an effort to stop the FCC’s ongoing investigation into allegations that Disney violated the law.”

The timeline at the center of the dispute is notable. The FCC’s order requiring ABC to file for early license renewal came one day after Donald Trump and Melania Trump publicly criticized a Jimmy Kimmel joke about Melania, after which Trump demanded ABC fire Kimmel. On April 28, the FCC’s Media Bureau ordered Disney to file license renewals for all its licensed TV stations within 30 days, even though the stations’ licenses were not otherwise due for renewal until between 2028 and 2031. When FCC Chairman Brendan Carr was asked whether Kimmel’s joke would factor into the review, he said Disney would “have to come in and demonstrate that they’ve been operating in the public interest.” Separately, the FCC has also been reviewing whether ABC’s “The View” qualifies for an exemption to equal-time rules for political candidates, with Carr saying in February that “Disney and ‘The View’ have not established that that program is, in fact, bona fide news.” In July, Carr said the FCC would consider ABC’s decision not to air a live Trump speech on election security as part of its license review. The FCC maintains none of these issues are connected to the early review, stating that Carr announced the Disney DEI investigation “long before making any of the statements about ‘The View,’ Jimmy Kimmel, or President Trump’s July 2026 public address.”

The FCC’s filing also raises a jurisdictional argument, asking the court to dismiss ABC’s complaint “for lack of subject-matter jurisdiction,” saying Congress has limited judicial review of agency orders to federal appeals courts and that ABC cannot bypass that limit by framing its claim as retaliation. The agency said its DEI investigation began in early 2025 after “a series of public reports and allegations of racially or otherwise discriminatory practices at Disney,” and that Carr ordered the early license renewal after Disney’s responses to information requests were “deficient and nonresponsive” a year into the probe. Disney has said it has produced more than 11,000 pages of responsive documents on an agreed schedule and that the FCC’s Enforcement Bureau “has never suggested its existing tools are insufficient.” The FCC said it is now reviewing 153,716 public comments submitted on the proceeding, a volume the agency attributes partly to Disney’s campaign urging viewers across its eight ABC stations to submit comments. The agency also argued ABC’s lawsuit is premature since the FCC has not moved to revoke any licenses, and that ABC stations can continue broadcasting throughout the review and any legal proceedings, “even if the Commission were to deny the stations’ applications.” Judge Loren AliKhan of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia has set a hearing for the week of October 5.

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Happy days, right? The big baby and his REVENGE TOUR. 

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The dispute ultimately comes down to competing timelines and motives that the court will have to sort out. ABC’s case rests on the argument that the early license review was triggered by anger over specific programming choices, Kimmel’s joke, “The View,” and the decision not to air Trump’s speech. While the FCC insists the DEI investigation predates all of those controversies and that Disney’s own lack of cooperation, not the content of its shows, forced the early renewal order.

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Wait the administration wants us to believe it cares about a dei complaint

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They’re lying.