ABC Lashes Out at Trump FCC in Blistering Filing Accusing Them of Violating First Amendment

ABC lashed out at President Donald Trump’s Federal Communications Commission (FCC) over what they call a First Amendment violation against the popular daytime talk show The View.

Earlier this year, Trump’s Brendan Carr-led FCC opened an “enforcement proceeding” against The View over his agency’s new guidelines on “equal time” rules. Carr and Trump have been aggressive about punishing and pressuring media outlets with which they disapprove.

In a new 52-page filing to the FCC, ABC lawyers objected strongly to the action and repeatedly accused the Trump administration of attempting to violate free speech rights.

The filing opens “The Commission’s order to file this Petition for Declaratory Ruling is unprecedented, beyond the Commission’s authority, and counterproductive to the Commission’s stated goal of encouraging free speech and open political discussion. The Commission’s actions threaten to upend decades of settled law and practice and chill critical protected speech, both with respect to The View and more broadly.”

The filing continues:

Some may dislike certain—or even most—of the viewpoints expressed on The View or similar shows. Such dislike, however, cannot justify using regulatory processes to restrict those views. The government does not get to decide “what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion, or other matters of opinion.”4 Or which “ideas and beliefs [are] deserving of expression [and] consideration.”5 The danger is that the government will simply decide which perspectives to regulate and which to leave undisturbed. In fact, while the Commission now questions The View’s decades-long exemption, it has not expressed any inclination to apply a similar interpretation of the equal opportunities rule to other broadcasters, including the many voices— conservative and liberal—on broadcast radio. And as a broad array of voices, including many conservatives, have recognized, if the government is allowed to discriminate on the basis of viewpoint in a Republican administration, there is little preventing it from doing so when the Democrats are in charge.

The ABC attorneys devoted an entire section to explaining the First Amendment violation, and concluded:

The View, and other shows like it, support the public interest, as Congress envisioned when it adopted the bona fide news exemptions. This goal—giving the public the broadest access to news about political races by permitting broadcasters to cover political news without fear of sanction—is especially critical today. As the 2026 election approaches, the American people need more access to political news and more exposure to political candidates, not less. It is therefore imperative that the Commission act quickly to assure broadcasters that it will uphold its long-established standards protecting broadcasters’ good faith news judgment in including political candidates in bona fide news programming. To do anything else—on the eve of an election cycle—would compound the uncertainty and resulting First Amendment chill that the Commission’s recent actions have engendered. ABC therefore respectfully requests that the Commission expeditiously affirm that The View continues to qualify for the bona fide news interview exemption under Section 315(a).

While the filing was made on behalf of a single station, as the New York Times pointed out, it is signed by heavy-hitting constitutional attorney Paul Clement.

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