President Donald Trump is not a fan of The View, an ABC talk show whose panelists frequently criticize him. Neither is Brendan Carr, the Trump-appointed chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), who has suggested that the show could face regulatory consequences because of its political bias. Specifically, Carr is threatening to revoke The View's exemption from the "equal time" rule, which in practice would amount to a ban on interviews with candidates for public office.
That threat, ABC argues in an FCC petition filed on Friday, is blatantly inconsistent with the First Amendment, which protects the editorial discretion of news and opinion outlets. Notably, ABC is represented by Paul Clement, a veteran Supreme Court litigator who served as solicitor general during the George W. Bush administration. Clement says the "equal time" rule itself "raises profound First Amendment concerns," a problem that will be aggravated if the FCC reverses its longstanding policy of exempting talk shows like The View.
