A protester holds a “Protect Free Speech” sign following a demonstration against the suspension of “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” » show, held near the theater where the show is produced in Hollywood, on September 22, 2025 in Los Angeles, California.
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Mario Tama/Getty Images North America
A federal court in Washington, D.C., is set to host a legal battle Tuesday morning between Walt Disney Co. and the nation’s top broadcast regulator over the scope of First Amendment protections during Donald Trump’s presidency.
President Trump has repeatedly called on Disney’s ABC TV to fire late-night comedian Jimmy Kimmel, who has consistently mocked the president. Trump has also regularly denounced ABC broadcasts. The viewaccusing him of being liberal and unfair.
Trump had previously sued the network, before returning to office, over incorrect statements made by anchor George Stephanopoulos about the verdicts in two lawsuits filed by writer E. Jean Carroll against Trump. ABC paid $16 million in a December 2024 settlement, including legal fees, to resolve this issue a month before Trump returns to the White House. But new Disney CEO Josh D’Amaro has authorized a high-stakes battle against the administration in court.
Brendan Carr, whom Trump elevated to chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, echoed the president’s complaints. And under Carr, the FCC plans to reexamine Disney’s ownership of the eight stations it owns, as part of the ABC network, years ahead of schedule. This followed months of Trump’s social media posts urging the FCC to strip ABC of its station licenses.
“There’s not even a question about what Carr is doing. What Carr is doing is unconstitutional,” says Mark Fowler, former Republican chairman of the FCC under President Ronald Reagan. Fowler filed a statement in support of ABC’s lawsuit in which he likened Carr’s actions to censorship. “The First Amendment is very clear in its wording and its meaning,” he says.
Technically, the networks do not require a license from the federal government to operate. Stations need it to use public airwaves. They are continually revised on a phased basis and are usually renewed without much fanfare.
Carr has cited stations’ requirement to serve “the public interest,” launched investigations into Disney’s diversity, equity and inclusion policies, and while he says the license review is not related to ABC’s content, he has criticized the network as biased.
Disney and ABC are seeking to convince U.S. District Judge Loren L. AliKhan to issue an order preventing the FCC from expediting the usual review process. She forced the FCC to wait for this hearing to move forward. Media advocates, FCC veterans and legal observers say the decision to challenge all of ABC’s local licenses simultaneously is unprecedented. And if it succeeded, it would seriously harm ABC. Six of these eight stations are present in major media markets and contribute significantly to the network’s financial results.
“The FCC’s excesses pose one of the greatest threats facing journalism today,” said Bruce Brown, president of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press.
In an interview with NPR in August, Carr said the agency had not decided whether to take away ABC’s station licenses. Instead, he said, ABC is complaining about its willingness to take the “public interest” component of the law seriously. And he said the network is getting ahead of itself. The agency has yet to take any action against ABC’s licenses; she simply sped up her examination.
That question could occupy part of Tuesday’s legal wrangling, as it will help determine whether ABC and Disney have standing to sue.
Conservative groups, including fundraising organizations for Republican candidates for the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, have filed briefs in support of the FCC and, by extension, the president’s complaints about bias.
“As a matter of common sense, the evidence of broadcasters’ intent to promote the candidacies of Democratic Party figures on The View is not only present, but overwhelming,” the Republican fundraising committees say in a court filing.
Despite this, several groups often affiliated with conservatives have spoken out against the Justice Department’s record, including the Cato Institute, the Competitive Enterprise Institute, and the Institute for Policy Innovation.
They note that Carr has strongly condemned ABC for its content, and appears to directly echo Trump’s condemnations — saying at one point on a right-wing podcast in September 2025 that ABC getting rid of Kimmel “can do it the easy way or the hard way.” ABC suspended Kimmel hours later over remarks he made about the murder of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
The suspension was quickly lifted after public outcry.
NBC Satirists Seth Meyers Late at night and HBO’s John Oliver Last week tonight paid tribute to his ABC counterpart during an episode of Jimmy Kimmel live recorded last week in Brooklyn.
“You come up all the time. (Fans) will normally say: How does it feel to be hated by the current president? And we always say, as long as you’re on the air, you’re fine,” Oliver told Kimmel. “We are fully behind you – the same way we are fully behind a bulletproof vest.”
The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press filed a friend-of-the-court brief on behalf of ABC, hiring a former U.S. solicitor general who has argued numerous cases before the U.S. Supreme Court, to represent the organization at the district court level.
Bruce Brown, the group’s president, highlighted a series of other actions by Carr and other Trump appointees: the FCC launched investigations into all broadcast networks, including NPR (except Fox, which is controlled by the president’s allies Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch); The administration cut off access to many journalists at the White House and Pentagon, while federal agents sought access to journalists’ devices to identify anonymous sources; Meanwhile, the president has sought to delegitimize media outlets whose presentation of news has sparked public protests.
“This is just part of a broader effort by the Trump administration to intimidate the press — and to try to coerce news organizations into providing the type of coverage the president wants to see,” Brown said.
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