Disney and ABC Sue the FCC. One Commissioner Just Sided Against Her Own Agency.
- 8 Stations the Disney-owned ABC television stations the FCC ordered to file early license renewals — years ahead of their normal 2028-2031 deadlines — NBC News; CBS News
- 50+ Years how long it had been since the FCC last ordered this kind of early license-renewal review before its April 2026 order — NBC News; CBS News
- ~153,000 public comments filed in the FCC's renewal docket before it closed Aug. 5, 2026 — roughly 95% supportive of the ABC stations — Variety; TheWrap; Bloomberg Law
- 1 of 5 sitting FCC commissioners — the lone Democrat, Anna Gomez — publicly broke with her own agency to support Disney's lawsuit — Raw Story
Disney, ABC, and all eight Disney-owned ABC stations sued the FCC on August 18, 2026, calling the agency’s April order forcing years-early license-renewal reviews an act of First Amendment retaliation. The FCC hit back the same day — and then one of its own commissioners publicly took Disney’s side.
This is the direct legal sequel to Civic Intelligence’s earlier reporting on the FCC’s order, which followed Jimmy Kimmel’s on-air joke calling Melania Trump an “expectant widow.”
On April 28, 2026, the FCC ordered all eight Disney-owned ABC stations to file early license-renewal applications within 30 days — licenses that otherwise weren’t due until 2028 to 2031, and the first such early-renewal demand from the agency in more than 50 years. The order came one day after President Trump publicly demanded Kimmel’s firing.
Disney’s roughly 45-page complaint, filed with a motion for a temporary restraining order, cites a December 24, 2025 Trump Truth Social post asking whether broadcast licenses should be “terminated” over unfavorable coverage as evidence of retaliatory intent. “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,” the complaint states.
FCC Chairman Brendan Carr (R) called the lawsuit “meritless,” telling reporters Disney was “jumping the gun.” An FCC spokesperson was blunter: “All broadcasters have a legal obligation to operate in the public interest — even Disney. ... The FCC will continue to follow the facts and law wherever they lead,” accusing Disney of “an ongoing campaign of disinformation.”
“All broadcasters have a legal obligation to operate in the public interest—even Disney. The FCC has been examining claims that Disney engaged in illegal DEI discrimination for over a year.”
FCC spokesperson, Aug. 18, 2026
The FCC maintains its review is rooted in a year-long probe into alleged unlawful DEI-based discrimination at Disney and the Communications Act’s public-interest standard — a standard Carr says broadcasters accept in exchange for free use of spectrum “worth billions of dollars.”
FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez (D), the lone Democrat on the five-member commission, publicly sided with Disney against her own agency’s position.
FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez: 'I have long called on companies to push back against this kind of government intimidation, and I'm glad Disney has shown courage and stepped up.'
Gomez had already criticized the FCC’s posture toward ABC in July, calling Carr’s warning that ABC’s decision to stream rather than broadcast a Trump address would “factor into” the license review a form of “de facto censorship.” A group of former FCC chairs went further in a July statement, calling the whole review “an assault on free speech disguised as regulatory process.”
The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Loren AliKhan in Washington, now turns on whether Disney can show the FCC’s review was retaliatory rather than a genuine public-interest inquiry — a First Amendment question courts take seriously but rarely resolve quickly. Disney’s TRO motion seeks to pause the FCC’s renewal review while the underlying case proceeds.
Disney, ABC, and all eight Disney-owned ABC stations sued the FCC on August 18, 2026 over its April order forcing years-early license-renewal filings, calling it First Amendment retaliation tied to Jimmy Kimmel’s Melania Trump joke and Trump’s own public threats to broadcast licenses. Chairman Brendan Carr (R) called the suit “meritless”; the FCC accused Disney of “disinformation.” FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez (D), the agency’s lone Democrat, publicly backed Disney against her own commission. The case is pending before Judge Loren AliKhan.
