The American Civil Liberties Union has filed a Freedom of Information Act request demanding the Federal Communications Commission release records explaining why it ordered Disney's eight ABC-owned television stations to renew their broadcast licenses early. The ACLU argues the FCC's official justification does not seem credible and suspects the agency is illegally retaliating against ABC over content the Trump administration disliked, while also seeking to intimidate other broadcasters into avoiding similar coverage.

The FCC's Media Bureau ordered the early license renewals on 28 April, one day after Donald and Melania Trump publicly criticised a joke about the First Lady made on Jimmy Kimmel's ABC show. The agency has said the move relates to enforcing "public interest" standards and stems from a probe into Disney/ABC's diversity, equity and inclusion practices, but ABC and several former FCC chairs have dismissed this explanation as pretextual. The FCC has also opened a separate review into whether "The View" should be exempt from equal-time rules for political candidates, and both the FCC and ABC have been approached for comment.