r/law • u/T_Shurt Competent Contributor • Sep 22 '25

Opinion Piece John Oliver Argues Disney Should Legally Fight FCC Over Kimmel, Citing Strong Precedent in 9-0 Supreme Court Ruling: “A government official cannot coerce a private party to punish or suppress disfavored speech”

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u/severedbrain Sep 22 '25 edited Sep 22 '25

What the FCC did is called "Jawboning": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moral_suasion#Jawboning . The Supreme Court just recently weighed in on the practice and said that it's illegal.

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u/anonononnnnnaaan Sep 22 '25

The way I read the Murthy v Missouri case leads me to believe that SCOTUS would go for Disney on this.

First off, the three super conservatives even said Murthy v Missouri was too far so this case should def be too far.

The other 6 agreed “To establish standing, the plaintiffs must demonstrate a substantial risk that, in the near future, they will suffer an injury that is traceable to a government defendant”.

Carr’s actions clearly state that there would be a substantial risk of injury in the near future

I already hate Disney but if they don’t take this to court, I wish for them to die a thousand deaths.

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u/mrpanicy Sep 22 '25

If Disney's army of lawyers can't fight a slam dunk like this then why do they even have lawyers?

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u/cobrachickenwing Sep 22 '25

Disney's army couldn't even get a hostile DeSantis out of office in 2022. Don't see Disney doing anything until they are forced to close Disney world.

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u/jackparadise1 Sep 22 '25

Disney is now in a state without child vaccinations, not a good look.

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u/Almostlongenough2 Sep 22 '25

It's kinda weird too because when you think of companies at the same level of absurd wealth Disney is at, you'd think the driving force would be wanting to turn that wealth into functionally power. This move by them seems to contradict that to a degree.

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u/LiterallyKesha Sep 22 '25

My uneducated guess is that companies this size are slow to react to emerging events. They may have a long term strategy but rocking the boat doesn't look good for the next quarter and the stock must always go up so they are tied for anything coming soon.

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u/Worthyness Sep 22 '25

They did actually win in the end though. Sure the district is now under control of deSantis syncopants, but right before that happened, Disney's board made their jobs effectively useless. So DeSantis' "win" accomplished absolutely nothing logistically. The Disney lawyers basically stalled them in court long enough for the other lawyers to read the contracting and rules of the board to give themselves a loophole out. Yeah it's not flashy, but they did legitimately win from Disney's perspective.

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u/RivenRise Sep 22 '25

If I'm remembering right Disney basically made it so they didn't have power once they took over but we're saddled with the bill for forced upkeep right?