After being forced to apply early to renew its license to broadcast on the eight local television stations it owns, ABC has sued the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), arguing that it is being retaliated against for content-based reasons.

The network filed the lawsuit on Tuesday while it waits to hear whether the Brendan Carr-led FCC approves its renewal requests, or, more likely, holds a hearing on their merits.

Late last month, a group of prominent former FCC officials, including key staffers and commissioners appointed by both Democratic and Republican presidents, issued a warning – in a filing – that the agency is trying to send a “chilling message” to broadcasters after forcing ABC to apply early.

Conservative organizations, including the Center for American Rights and the Media Research Center, filed petitions urging the FCC to deny the renewals, arguing that the network’s journalism was politically bias.

“Acting through the Federal Communications Commission, the Administration has waged a retaliatory campaign against ABC for a single reason: it disapproves of what ABC broadcasts,” the network said in the suit, filed on behalf of its eight local stations in district court for the District of Columbia.

“That campaign began in this Administration’s earliest days and has only intensified since. Again and again, the Administration has attacked ABC’s speech – the stories its journalists report and the viewpoints its network programs air. Over time, those attacks have escalated into express demands that ABC be stripped of its broadcast licenses because of its speech.”