The Federal Communications Commission ordered Disney to file early license renewal applications for all ABC-owned TV stations by May 28, an unusual step that legal experts say faces an almost insurmountable legal barrier. The order, issued Wednesday, comes one day after President Trump called for ABC to fire late-night host Jimmy Kimmel over a joke about Melania Trump. Disney said Thursday it is prepared to fight through appropriate legal channels.
Andrew Jay Schwartzman has watched broadcast regulation for decades. The senior counselor at the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society points to one date. 1996. That year, Congress rewrote the rules.
A sweeping update to the Communications Act of 1934 eliminated the old comparative renewal process. Before the change, broadcasters had to prove their programming was the best among any competitors seeking the license. After 1996, renewals became what Schwartzman calls “all but automatic.”
“Since the NAB got an amendment in the 1996 Telecommunications Act, denying renewal to a broadcaster faces an almost insurmountable burden,” Schwartzman said in an interview this week. The FCC order did not mention Kimmel by name. Instead, the agency said it has been investigating Disney’s ABC stations for possible violations of the Communications Act and FCC rules, including the prohibition on unlawful discrimination.
FCC Chairman Brendan Carr has repeatedly claimed that Disney’s diversity, equity, and inclusion practices constitute a form of discrimination. But the timing is hard to ignore. One day before the order, President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump publicly demanded ABC fire Kimmel.
The comedian had joked during a skit that Melania Trump looked like an “expectant widow.” Kimmel was pretending to deliver a roast at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner. Carr threatened ABC station licenses in September 2025 over previous Kimmel comments. Trump sued ABC in 2024 over statements made by anchor George Stephanopoulos.
That case ended with a $15 million settlement paid by ABC. “Even after paying off the president last year, ABC is once again under attack by this administration,” Senator Adam Schiff, a California Democrat, wrote Wednesday. “This should be a lesson to all who capitulate to the president: You cannot buy his favor, you can only rent it.”
Not all Republicans are lining up behind Carr. Senator Ted Cruz of Texas criticized the FCC chairman’s 2025 attack on Kimmel and weighed in again this week. “It is not government’s job to censor speech, and I do not believe the FCC should operate as the speech police,” Cruz told Punchbowl News. The legal landscape strongly favors Disney.
Northwestern University law professor James Speta analyzed the issue last year in the Yale Journal on Regulation. He wrote that article in response to previous threats against ABC by Trump and Carr. “Although the Communications Act says that the FCC shall issue licenses based on the ‘public interest,’ the Act has never been read to allow the government to define the public interest as anything the government says it is,” Speta wrote. “The Supreme Court has confirmed that the Communications Act does not grant the FCC the power to ban controversial speech.”
The 1996 law added a specific “standards for renewal” section. It requires license renewal if the station has served the public interest, has not committed serious violations, and has no pattern of abuse. These standards, as George Washington University’s Christopher Sterling noted in a 2006 Federal Communications Law Journal article, “are very easy to meet for the vast majority of stations.”
Sterling described the change vividly. Congress eliminated the comparative renewal process “with a sweep of its legislative hand.” Renewals became a matter of minor administrative review. No real threat of losing a license for outlets that had broadcast for decades.
This section of the law “creates a strong presumption in favor of renewal,” Schwartzman said. He noted it applies only to broadcast licenses. Cellular and satellite licenses do not enjoy the same protection.
The FCC bears the burden of proof at every stage. Commissioner Anna Gomez, the commission’s lone Democrat, made that clear Wednesday. Her office has consistently criticized Carr’s media attacks. “Any action premised on a broadcaster’s content or editorial choices runs directly into the Communications Act’s prohibition on censoring broadcaster content and the First Amendment, barriers courts have consistently upheld,” Gomez’s office said. “The government cannot weaponize the licensing process to punish speech it disapproves of and attempts to do so have consistently failed.”
The FCC is likely to build its legal case around alleged anti-discrimination violations rather than programming content. But Gomez’s office noted that even a different legal theory does not erase the public record of political threats. “Courts take motivation seriously, and the motivation here is clear,” her office said. What this actually means for your family.
The policy says one thing. The reality says another. The early renewal process does not change any license expiration date.
ABC’s eight TV stations are scheduled for renewals between 2028 and 2031. This simply accelerates a process that already takes years. “The idea is that if you know there is a problem, start the proceeding now,” Schwartzman said. Proving that ABC engaged in willful or repeated violations is no easy task.
The legal battle would stretch for years. ABC would keep its licenses throughout. “The broadcaster can continue to operate during the years-long process of agency review and court appeals,” Schwartzman said. The biggest question may not be legal at all.
It is whether Disney fights tooth and nail or makes concessions to Carr. For now, the company says it will fight. In a statement Wednesday, Disney said ABC and its stations have a long record of complying with FCC rules and serving the public interest. “We are confident that record demonstrates our continued qualifications as licensees under the Communications Act and the First Amendment and are prepared to show that through the appropriate legal channels,” the company said.
The history here matters. Sterling’s research showed that few licenses were ever challenged in comparative renewals. Fewer still were denied.
But the process kept “legions of attorneys busy at a high cost to broadcasters even if licenses were nearly always renewed.”
Schwartzman said it has been “many decades” since the FCC invoked the early renewal provision against a large broadcaster. The mechanism itself is rarely used. Both sides claim victory.
Here are the numbers. Zero broadcast licenses have been revoked over content disputes since the 1996 law passed. The legal standard requires evidence of willful or repeated violations.
A single joke does not meet that threshold. A DEI program, absent a court ruling that it constitutes illegal discrimination, does not either. The FCC order said the early renewal process “enables the FCC to ensure that the broadcaster has been meeting its public interest obligations more broadly.” That expansive language suggests Carr may try to widen the inquiry beyond DEI.
But the law cabins the FCC’s power tightly when it comes to cancellations. Speta’s analysis emphasized this point. The broad public interest standard that applies to granting licenses narrows considerably when the agency tries to deny renewals.
Why It Matters:
A successful challenge to ABC’s licenses would rewrite decades of broadcast law. It would signal that any station critical of the administration risks its legal right to operate. The chilling effect would extend far beyond Disney.
Local stations, network affiliates, and independent broadcasters would face a new calculus: cover the government aggressively and risk your license, or soften coverage and stay safe. For viewers, that means less accountability reporting on the officials who hold power over their daily lives. The case also tests whether a 1996 law designed to depoliticize license renewals can withstand an agency determined to use the process as leverage. - The 1996 Telecommunications Act created a strong legal presumption in favor of broadcast license renewal, making denial extremely difficult. - The FCC order accelerates a process that normally takes years but does not change ABC’s license expiration dates between 2028 and 2031. - Disney says it will fight the order through legal channels, and ABC can continue operating throughout any agency review and court appeals. - The case will test whether political pressure can overcome statutory protections designed to keep licensing decisions separate from content disputes.
What comes next is a May 28 deadline. Disney must file early renewal applications for all ABC-owned stations by that date. The company will likely comply with the filing requirement while simultaneously challenging the legal basis for the accelerated review.
The FCC will then begin a proceeding that could stretch for years. Courts will watch closely. The motivation behind the order is part of the public record.
Any judge reviewing the case will see the sequence: a Kimmel joke, a presidential demand, an FCC order the next day. That timeline will matter in court. The legal fight has barely begun.
The stakes extend to every broadcast newsroom in the country.
Key Takeaways
— - The 1996 Telecommunications Act created a strong legal presumption in favor of broadcast license renewal, making denial extremely difficult.
— - The FCC order accelerates a process that normally takes years but does not change ABC’s license expiration dates between 2028 and 2031.
— - Disney says it will fight the order through legal channels, and ABC can continue operating throughout any agency review and court appeals.
— - The case will test whether political pressure can overcome statutory protections designed to keep licensing decisions separate from content disputes.
Source: Ars Technica
