Disney-owned ABC has filed a First Amendment lawsuit against the Federal Communications Commission over the FCC’s demands they submit licenses for review two years early.

ABC Suing FCC

ABC lawyers said in their filing with U.S. District Court that the company was being punished for editorial decisions and news coverage and had “no alternative means to eliminate these ongoing and immediate threats other than total capitulation to the Administration’s demands.”

They added that the Trump administration had “attacked ABC’s speech” multiple times and “those attacks have escalated into express demands that ABC be stripped of its broadcast licenses because of its speech.” (via Variety)

In April, the FCC ordered reviews of the licenses of eight Disney-owned ABC stations. The eight-year licenses were not due for review until October 2028.

The FCC said the early reviews were related to its investigation of Disney’s DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) initiatives. However, the order came one day after President Donald Trump called for the firing of late-night host Jimmy Kimmel over his “widow” Melania Trump joke.

ABC submitted its license renewal applications but said the process was a “threat to the First Amendment that this Commission and this proceeding must not be permitted to normalize.”

Multiple U.S. Senators called for the FCC to rescind its early broadcast license renewal order against Disney, calling the order “the latest and most extreme step in your use of the FCC’s licensing authority as a cudgel against broadcasters whose editorial choices displease the President.”

A group of former FCC officials said that the early license review was “an assault on free speech ⁠disguised ​as ​regulatory process.”

In May, ABC also accused the FCC of violating its First Amendment rights after a minor dispute over the talk show, The View.

For the latest Disney Parks news and info, follow WDW News Today on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

The post ABC Suing Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Over ‘Attacks’ on Free Speech appeared first on WDW News Today.