Judge denies the emergency hearing but locks in 48 hours' notice… 61 Trump-related media suits since 2015, 25 of them in the past 20 months
ABC sued the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on Aug. 18, in Case 1:26-cv-02902. Parent company Disney and the eight owned stations whose licenses are under review joined as plaintiffs; the defendants include the FCC, Chairman Brendan Carr and Commissioners Olivia Trusty and Anna Gomez.
The claim rests on the First Amendment. ABC argues that the order for an accelerated review of its local station licenses is retaliation for its reporting and programming choices, and it moved for a temporary restraining order and a preliminary injunction to stop the proceeding.
The court's first ruling came on Aug. 20. Judge Loren L. AliKhan denied ABC's request for a hearing before Aug. 25 and instead set a schedule: the FCC's response and motion to dismiss by Sept. 3, ABC's reply and opposition by Sept. 17, and briefing closing Sept. 24, with a hearing during the week of Oct. 5. She also ordered the FCC to give at least 48 hours' notice before issuing a hearing designation order, which would move the license renewals into an administrative hearing process, and to file any such order with the court the same day. If that happens, argument on the restraining order takes place the next business day.