Disney has filed a lawsuit in federal court alleging that President Donald Trump’s Federal Communications Commission is violating its First Amendment rights.
According to court documents obtained by CNN and Reuters on Tuesday, August 18, Disney claimed the Trump administration “has waged a retaliatory campaign against ABC for a single reason: It disapproves of what ABC broadcasts.”
In the suit, Disney claimed the FCC is seeking to coerce and retaliate against “a network that refuses to bow to the administration’s demands,” calling the agency’s actions an “extraordinary assault on free speech.”
The lawsuit is seeking to stop an early TV station license renewal process that Disney claimed is an attack on free speech. The FCC, however, sees things differently.
“All broadcasters have a legal obligation to operate in the public interest — even Disney,” an FCC spokesperson said in a statement to Us on Tuesday. “The FCC has been examining claims that Disney engaged in illegal DEI discrimination for over a year. Disney is obviously very concerned about the FCC’s proceeding, as evidenced by their ongoing campaign of disinformation as well as their decision to ask a court to stop the FCC from further pursuing matters. The FCC will continue to follow the facts and law wherever they lead.”
The legal fight comes as the FCC continues to investigate The View.
In March, FCC chairman Brendan Carr, whom Trump, 80, appointed, alleged that ABC’s talk show violates the FCC’s “Equal Time” rule by not giving conservative guests and points of view equal airtime to liberal views and guests.
“You have Disney out there complaining that The View, and Whoopi Goldberg, is a ‘bonafide news program’ and therefore exempt from the ‘equal time’ rule,” he claimed during a panel at the Conservative Political Action Conference. “The FCC has launched an enforcement investigation into The View for failing to comply with the ‘equal time’ provisions.”
Disney-owned ABC fired back over the FCC’s attempts at intervention in May with a formal petition.
“Some may dislike certain — or even most — of the viewpoints expressed on The View or similar shows,” ABC shared in its FCC petition. “Such dislike, however, cannot justify using regulatory processes to restrict those views.”
Carr, however, recently defended the agency’s actions against ABC, saying broadcasters have a duty to “operate in the public interest” and the FCC is merely trying to restore that standard.
Carr has said the country should have a “trusted, respected news media, and we’re not there.”
Prior to The View debate, Disney suspended production of Jimmy Kimmel Live! in September 2025 following pressure from the Trump administration over host Jimmy Kimmel‘s on-air commentary about the murder of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
Days later, Kimmel, 58, returned to his late night ABC show and slammed Carr as “embarrassing.”
