Miller Barondess attorneys Skip Miller, Nadia Sarkis, David Schecter, and Michael Hale have secured a complete victory for Byron Allen and Allen Media Group (“AMG”) before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. In a published opinion, the court affirmed the dismissal of every claim against them arising from Standard General’s failed $8.6 billion acquisition of TEGNA Inc. and its more than 60 television stations. (SGCI Holdings III LLC v. Federal Communications Commission, No. 25-5339 (D.C. Cir. Aug. 25, 2026)).
The appellate opinion follows Miller Barondess’s district court victory in SGCI Holdings III LLC v. Federal Communications Commission, No. 1:24-cv-01204-RC (D.D.C.), dismissing race discrimination, conspiracy, and tortious interference claims premised on a theory that the FCC, AMG, and other private defendants unlawfully thwarted the regulatory approvals Standard General needed to execute the TEGNA merger.
On August 25, 2026, the D.C. Circuit affirmed the district court’s decision dismissing Standard General’s claims with prejudice. The Court held that Standard General failed to plausibly allege intentional race discrimination or a civil-rights conspiracy by AMG or the other private defendants, and the tortious-interference claims failed as a matter of D.C. law. In doing so, the panel adopted several of the central themes advanced in the briefing, including that the private defendants’ objections to the transaction must be read in context, did not plausibly raise an inference of anti-Asian discrimination, and instead reflected concerns about the transaction’s structure, financing, retransmission fees, localism, and lack of transparency. The Court further agreed that Standard General’s tortious interference theories failed because they depended on discretionary government approval and a speculative premise that the FCC would have approved the transaction absent AMG’s and others’ advocacy.