WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit Judge Loren AliKhan on Tuesday (10/6) heard from attorneys representing both The Walt Disney Co.’s ABC Television unit and the FCC, as litigation continued as to whether civil rights violations are at the heart of the Commission’s early license renewal proceeding for the eight ABC Owned Stations.
For ABC/Disney, stopping the FCC from completing that early license renewal process is what they want Judge AliKhan to rule. That didn’t immediately arrive, but the window for this desire remains open.
The two hour-long hearing was covered by major national news organizations including the Associated Press, CNN, Reuters, CBS News and The New York Times, among others. For those who believe ABC is unfairly being targeted by the Carr Commission as proxy to President Trump, what was said by Disney’s legal counsel is attention-worthy.
ABC’s legal counsel, Beth A. Wilkinson of Wilkinson Stekloff LLP, provided much of the press-ready commentary, which The New York Times did not share but CNN did. Wilkinson told AliKhan how the threat of a Hearing Designation Order for the ABC Owned Stations is nothing short of a “corporate death penalty,” and attacked the Carr Commission — and the White House — for action and pressure as if ABC had its “head on the guillotine.” With respect to how that impacts ABC News, Wilkinson suggested it has created an environment in which reporters now “wonder if anything we say is going to make that come down.”
With “enormous regulatory power to coerce, threaten and punish” those who offer news reports the Trump Administration does not like, Wilkinson told AliKhan, “Our concern is that we are chilled. We are making different editorial decisions,” she said. “We are watching everything that we do because every time we do something — even not broadcasting this presidential speech — brings out the anger in the administration and the retaliation from the agency.”
The FCC has repeatedly stated that the early license renewals of ABC Owned Stations’ eight properties are due to “invidious forms” of diversity, equity and inclusion processes it began investigating in summer 2025, with insufficient replies from The Walt Disney Co. leading the Commission to the rare early renewal process.
And, as this process is ongoing, the Commission’s legal counsel has insisted that ABC/Disney’s legal action is premature.
‘A DISCOVERY DISPUTE,’ IN DISPUTE
Acting as the administration’s legal counsel is Dimitar Georgiev-Remmel, known for his association with longtime D.C. law firm Squire Patton Boggs.
In his view, the HDO threat hanging over ABC/Disney is “merely over a discovery dispute.” Judge AliKhan questioned this, noting, “I imagine we have a lot of discovery disputes with a lot of your licensees. So what is it that made this so different that you needed to call for an early license renewal?”
Interestingly, David Shepardson of Reuters was the lone reporter in the courtroom covering the case for a major news organization to include the quote in his story, illustrating the very frustrations President Trump has with “biased” news media, as some chose to paint an anti-FCC picture of the matter in their coverage. The Hill, owned by Nexstar Media Group, declared that AliKhan refused to immediately sign a preliminary injunction stopping the FCC’s review immediately.
In truth, such an action would be immediately appealed and bring an abrupt end to a case that AliKhan previously expressed she’d like to hear out, in a normal timeline.
AliKhan has asked both parties to provide additional information in support of their respective arguments no later than October 14 as she continues to weigh the case. The “threshold question” for her, as Berin Szóka of Tech Freedom noted in extensive live coverage of the hearing on social media platform X, is if ABC must wait for a final Order from the Commission to sue?
The questioning from AliKhan to Georgiev-Remmel on this theme was intriguing. He was asked by the judge what would happen if the FCC said women shouldn’t hold broadcast licenses? His reply? Women would have to wait until the FCC actually denied a license, and a subsequent petition for review by the Commission, before it could sue in court.
Tech Freedom, along with 18 former FCC vote-makers (including Commissioners and former Chairs), urged AliKhan to “block Brendan Carr’s flagrant abuses of power.”
— With reporting by Adam R Jacobson, in Boca Raton, Fla.
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