FILE PHOTO: U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Brendan Carr listens to a reporter's question during a press conference, following an open meeting of the FCC, in Washington, D.C., U.S., July 22, 2026. REUTERS/Kylie Cooper/File Photo
Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr faces a First Amendment lawsuit from ABC, which accused him of waging a "deeply un-American" campaign to revoke the network's broadcast licenses.
ABC and its parent, the Walt Disney Company, filed the complaint Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Washington, seeking an emergency injunction to halt the FCC's early license renewal proceedings against the network's eight owned stations.
The suit describes an 18-month escalation — rooted in Trump's public demands on Truth Social and culminating in an unprecedented April 2026 order forcing ABC to seek license renewals years ahead of schedule.
"Government censorship is deeply un-American," the complaint opens, calling the FCC's campaign against the network a "sustained effort" to punish ABC for its coverage.
"Acting through the Federal Communications Commission," the suit said, "the Administration has waged a retaliatory campaign against ABC for a single reason: it disapproves of what ABC broadcasts."
The complaint traces the pressure campaign to a September 2025 ultimatum Carr issued after ABC late-night host Jimmy Kimmel criticized the president's response to the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
"We can do this the easy way or the hard way," Carr said in a podcast interview cited by the suit. "These companies can find ways to take action on Kimmel, or there is going to be additional work for the FCC ahead."
Hours after that warning, ABC temporarily pulled Kimmel's show, the complaint noted. The suit charged that Carr operates as Trump's instrument, alleging that "the Chairman takes the President's social media posts as his directives."
The complaint warned that any FCC adjudication of ABC's licenses "would be a charade" — with only adverse outcomes on the table, according to the filing.
"In either scenario," the suit said, "the Administration accomplishes its goal of eliminating a perceived media critic: either it gets Plaintiffs to fall in line, or it silences them if they refuse."
"The Commission's true target is not the Stations' employment practices or their carriage of a single presidential address," the complaint said. "It is the content of Plaintiffs' programming — and thus their speech."
The suit called the FCC's claimed authority to police ABC's journalism "a perversion of the 'public interest, convenience, and necessity' standard."
FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez, a defendant in the suit, had previously described the campaign in a letter cited by the complaint as "a sustained, coordinated campaign of censorship and control, carried out through the weaponization of the FCC's authority as a federal regulator and aimed at pressuring a free and independent press and all media into submission."
The complaint also cited Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), who called the FCC's attempted censorship of ABC "dangerous as hell."
Carr acknowledged the early renewal order's rarity in a Financial Times interview cited by the complaint. "If you didn't take us seriously," Carr told the outlet, "now you should."