ABC and the Federal Communications Commission clashed in a joint court filing over how quickly the network's First Amendment lawsuit against the regulator should proceed, with ABC pushing for an urgent hearing and the FCC arguing the case is premature and belongs elsewhere. ABC sued the FCC on Tuesday, alleging that the agency's order for an early renewal of its eight broadcast station licences was unusual and part of a wider pattern of using regulatory pressure to retaliate against news coverage disliked by the Trump administration. The dispute matters because it tests whether federal courts or the FCC's own administrative process should decide claims that a government agency is using licensing powers to punish protected speech.

In Thursday's filing to Judge Loren L. AliKhan, ABC proposed a hearing on its request for a temporary restraining order as soon as Friday, or on 24 or 25 August, to halt the licence renewal proceedings, which it says are chilling its free-speech rights. The FCC said its lawyers could attend those dates but separately called the timetable "highly expedited", proposed a briefing schedule for next month, and said it would file a motion to dismiss, arguing the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals rather than the district court has jurisdiction and that the regulatory process must first run its course. ABC's lawyers countered that they had raised a "textbook First Amendment retaliation claim" that belongs in federal court, not before the agency accused of the retaliation, and criticised the FCC's plan to give only 48 hours' notice before potentially designating the renewals for a hearing, which ABC likened to "sanctions".