ABC and Disney Sue the FCC on First Amendment Grounds, Calling Brendan Carr's Forced Early Review of Eight Broadcast Licenses an "Existential Threat" — and the Commission's Lone Democrat Says She's Glad They Did

August 18, 2026

On August 18, 2026, ABC, its parent company Disney, and the eight local stations whose licenses are at issue sued the Federal Communications Commission in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, asking the court to halt an early license-renewal proceeding the agency opened in April. None of the eight licenses were due to expire before 2028, and the complaint says the commission had not demanded an early renewal like it in more than fifty years. The suit frames the proceeding as retaliation: "Acting through the Federal Communications Commission, the Administration has waged a retaliatory campaign against ABC for a single reason: it disapproves of what ABC broadcasts." It points to President Trump's public demands that ABC lose its licenses, FCC Chairman Brendan Carr's threats against the network's broadcast licenses, an inquiry into its workplace diversity practices, and agency scrutiny of Democratic Texas Senate candidate James Talarico's appearance on "The View." Carr, in interviews the same day, called the case meritless and said "Disney seems a little jumpy right now." Anna Gomez, the commission's only Democrat, broke with her chairman and publicly welcomed the lawsuit, saying the FCC has spent months waging "a campaign of censorship and control." A dozen Senate Democrats — led by Ed Markey, Maria Cantwell, Chuck Schumer and Ben Ray Luján — had already written to Carr in May calling the early-renewal order "an egregious abuse of power."