Battle Between Disney and the F.C.C. Moves to the Courts

For months, the Walt Disney Company and President Trump’s Federal Communications Commission have traded accusations in a battle over the company’s free speech rights and its local broadcast stations.On Tuesday, they took their conflict to federal court.Disney lawyers asked a judge in U.S.District Court in Washington to bar the F.C.C.

from undertaking an unusual, early review of the broadcast licenses of the eight stations the company owns and operates.Disney, which owns ABC, called the review — and possible revocation — of the licenses an existential threat to its operations, and an “unlawful and improper” violation of its First Amendment rights.The F.C.C., which is run by a Trump appointee, Brendan Carr, asked the judge to throw out the lawsuit because the agency had yet to make a decision on the fate of the licenses and Disney had not established that it suffered irreparable harm.

Sticking largely to procedural arguments, its lawyers maintained that it was too early for judicial review of its actions.In her questioning of the F.C.C.attorneys, Judge Loren L.

AliKhan seemed open to the agency’s procedural arguments.But she appeared more skeptical of its lawyers’ attempts to argue that the review was primarily about ABC’s diversity and inclusion employment practices, and not because of Mr.

Trump’s many angry complaints about the network’s programming.Judge AliKhan will not make a ruling for at least a week.The showdown is the latest test of Mr.Trump’s sweeping campaign to punish media companies.

The administration’s actions have included barring news organizations from the White House, enacting reporting restrictions, suing news outlets and, in the case of the broadcast networks, unleashing the regulatory power of the federal government.If the judge rules in Disney’s favor, it will be a stinging loss for Mr.Carr, and could undermine his nearly two-year effort to rein in the major broadcast networks with the looming prospect of govern...