WASHINGTON – An attorney for ABC told a federal judge Tuesday that the Trump administration should be barred from carrying out an unusual early review of the network’s broadcast licenses. The lawyer compared the proceeding to a guillotine hanging over ABC and said it was already affecting the network’s editorial decisions just weeks before the U.S. midterm elections.
U.S. District Judge Loren AliKhan did not immediately decide whether to grant ABC’s request for a preliminary injunction blocking the Federal Communications Commission from moving ahead with the review. ABC argues that the action is unconstitutional, violates free-speech protections and amounts to retaliation for content President Donald Trump dislikes.
A government attorney countered that the court lacks jurisdiction because ABC filed the case in the wrong venue. The government also disputed the network’s First Amendment claims and argued that ABC had not demonstrated irreparable harm.
The judge was not expected to issue a ruling before at least mid-October. She directed the government to submit additional brief arguments by Oct. 9 and ABC to respond by Oct. 14.
ABC and its parent company, Disney, sued the FCC and FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr in August. The lawsuit followed the commission’s decision several months earlier to require eight ABC-owned stations to file broadcast-license renewal applications years ahead of schedule.
The dispute is among several legal confrontations between the Trump administration and news organizations, including The Associated Press, over coverage and access to the executive branch since Trump began his second term in the White House.
ABC asked the judge to temporarily stop the FCC from taking further action in the license-renewal proceedings. The network also wants the commission barred from coercing or threatening it in an effort to influence its “exercise of editorial discretion.”
“The First Amendment demands an immediate end to the Commission’s retaliatory campaign,” ABC’s attorneys wrote.
Carr, a Trump ally, ordered the early license review in April, shortly after an ABC joke by late-night host Jimmy Kimmel angered Trump. The president responded by calling for Kimmel to be fired.
ABC has also been challenging Carr’s efforts to subject the morning talk show “The View” to equal-time rules. Carr has defended the commission’s actions by saying broadcasters are required to “operate in the public interest.”
Government attorneys urged the court to dismiss ABC’s lawsuit, accusing the network of trying to prevent federal regulators from conducting scrutiny before it begins.
“To foreclose the Commission from using all the tools at its disposal to investigate whether Plaintiffs are meeting their statutory and regulatory duties would seriously harm both the government and the public,” Justice Department lawyers wrote.
AliKhan, a Democrat, was nominated to the federal bench by President Joe Biden.
___
Noveck reported from New York, while Boone reported from Boise, Idaho.
