State AGs Urge Ninth Circuit to Keep Nexstar-Tegna Merger Frozen as Bipartisan Coalition Eyes a July 2027 Trial
Eight states defend an April injunction that bars Nexstar from integrating Tegna, while the broader 13-state coalition and Nexstar jointly propose a July 2027 jury trial.
Overview
A coalition of state attorneys general has asked a federal appeals court to leave in place a court order that keeps Nexstar Media Group’s $6.2 billion acquisition of Tegna frozen, even though the deal has already closed. According to The Desk, the original eight states that filed a federal antitrust lawsuit to block the acquisition urged the appeals court to uphold a preliminary injunction issued by a lower court judge in April. Separately, both sides have asked the trial court to set a jury trial for July 2027, as reported by The Desk.
The dispute centers on the largest local-television combination ever attempted in the United States, and on whether a merger can be effectively unwound after regulators approved it and the companies legally combined.
What We Know
On April 17, 2026, Chief Judge Troy L. Nunley of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California issued a preliminary injunction barring Nexstar from integrating Tegna’s operations. The suit was brought by DIRECTV, LLC and a coalition of eight state attorneys general under Section 7 of the Clayton Act, 15 U.S.C. § 18, according to a client memo from Paul, Weiss. The order enjoined all integration and consolidation activities until final judgment and required Nexstar to allow Tegna to continue operating as a separate, independently managed business unit, the firm wrote.
The New York Attorney General’s office, describing the same order, said the injunction prevents Nexstar and Tegna “from integrating and consolidating their assets as part of the merger,” per the office of Attorney General Letitia James. The eight states behind the original action are California, Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, New York, North Carolina, Oregon and Virginia, that office said.
The transaction itself is not small. The Paul, Weiss memo describes a deal with an enterprise value of approximately $6.2 billion that would give Nexstar control of 228 broadcast stations reaching 80% of television households in 132 local markets. The combination closed on March 19, 2026, after the Federal Communications Commission and the Department of Justice signed off, according to Deadline. The FCC granted Nexstar a waiver from an ownership cap that limits companies from amassing stations covering more than 39% of the country, Deadline reported, with the agency under Chairman Brendan Carr.
After Judge Nunley’s ruling, Nexstar said it would challenge the decision. “We will appeal today’s decision and look forward to presenting our case on its merits before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals,” the company said in a statement quoted by TV Tech. Nexstar also argued that “this pro competitive transaction will make local stations stronger and support continued investment in local journalism and fact-based news,” according to the same statement.
The state coalition has grown since the original filing. In an amended complaint filed on April 30, 2026, the group expanded to 13 attorneys general, adding Indiana, Kansas, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and Vermont to the original eight, according to the office of California Attorney General Rob Bonta. The amended complaint says the deal “is expected to create the largest broadcast station group in the United States, putting more broadcast programming in the hands of fewer people, cutting local jobs, increasing cable bills,” and that the combined entity would cover 80% of U.S. television households, that office said.
The arrival of new states made the case bipartisan, with Bonta describing the effort as “a bipartisan effort” in remarks reported by Deadline. “Antitrust enforcement is not political — it’s about protecting working families and helping ensure the benefits of a vibrant economy are for everyone, not just well-connected corporations,” Bonta said, according to his office. Attorney General James framed the consumer stakes directly: “Consolidating hundreds of local TV stations under one corporate owner would mean higher prices and lower quality programming for consumers,” she said, per her office.
The June appeals brief was filed by the original eight states, but not by the five others who joined the case later, according to The Desk. That outlet noted that the lower court’s order prohibits Nexstar from commingling its business operations with Tegna’s, though the two companies are allowed to share a limited amount of financial information necessary to comply with certain regulatory requirements.
On the trial timeline, both sides have asked a federal judge in Sacramento to schedule the matter for a jury trial in July 2027, with evidence disclosure and other pretrial work taking place between August of this year and February 2027, per The Desk.
What We Don’t Know
The Ninth Circuit has not yet ruled on Nexstar’s appeal of the preliminary injunction, and the date the appeals court will decide is not established in the cited reporting. The five states that joined later did not sign the June appeals brief, but the cited sources do not explain the reason for that split. Whether the proposed July 2027 trial date will be adopted by the court remains pending. Finally, the sources do not detail how Nexstar would divest specific stations if the plaintiffs ultimately prevail, beyond the requirement that Tegna continue to operate separately in the interim.
Analysis
The Nexstar-Tegna fight is unusual because the merger cleared its federal regulators and legally closed before the antitrust challenge produced a court order to keep the companies apart. That sequence — a closed deal held in suspended animation by a hold-separate injunction — raises the practical question that Judge Nunley’s order is designed to preserve: if the plaintiffs win at trial, can the combined company still be pulled back into two competitors? Requiring Tegna to keep operating as an independent business unit is the mechanism that keeps an eventual divestiture feasible. With a jury trial not proposed until July 2027, the appeals court’s decision on the injunction will likely govern the competitive shape of local broadcasting for more than a year regardless of how the underlying merits are eventually resolved.