Disney and its ABC network asked a federal judge in Washington on Thursday, September 18, 2026, to stop the Federal Communications Commission from reviewing the licenses of eight ABC-owned television stations two years before they are due for renewal.
The filing is the company's answer to the agency's attempt to have its lawsuit thrown out, and it puts the argument in unusually direct terms: the review, Disney says, is punishment for programming the White House does not like, run by a chairman who serves at the president's pleasure. FCC chairman Brendan Carr can be dismissed "at will" if a president finds him insufficiently responsive, the company argues, which is why it wants a court — not the commission — to decide whether the proceeding goes forward.
How the licenses came up early
The stations were not scheduled for renewal until October 2028. In April 2026, Carr ordered them reviewed immediately — one day after Trump publicly called on ABC to fire the late-night host Jimmy Kimmel. It was the first time in more than 50 years that the commission had ordered an early license review.
ABC filed the early renewal applications on May 28, 2026, under protest. Carr said at the time that the agency would "follow the facts." Petitions to deny the renewals followed, and in August the company sued Carr and the commission, describing a retaliatory campaign against a network that would not do what the administration wanted.
On September 4 the FCC moved to dismiss that suit on two grounds: that the case belongs before a federal appeals court rather than a district court, and that allowing it to proceed could interfere with a separate agency investigation into allegations that Disney engaged in unlawful discrimination. Thursday's filing is Disney's response. A hearing is scheduled for October 6, 2026.
The wider pattern
The Kimmel episode is not the only point of contact between the president and broadcast regulation. On August 30, 2026, Trump said NBC's Kristen Welker should face an FCC "rebuke or punishment" over an interview, and he has repeatedly raised the possibility of networks losing their licenses over coverage he objects to.
Former commission officials have criticized the ABC review in strong terms, with one group calling it an assault on free speech dressed up as regulatory process. Broadcast licenses are renewed routinely; the leverage lies less in the prospect of revocation, which is rare, than in the cost and uncertainty of an open-ended proceeding.
Neither the White House nor Carr commented immediately on Thursday's filing.
What the judge decides on October 6 will not settle whether the FCC may ultimately review the licenses. It will settle something narrower and, for the eight stations, more immediate: whether the review can continue while the First Amendment claim is still being argued.
Reporting from court filings reported on September 18, 2026, Media Confidential, the Hawaii Tribune-Herald, NewscastStudio, CNBC and Variety.
