The Supreme Court has set a Sept. 25 deadline for California Attorney General Rob Bonta and 11 other state attorneys general to respond to Iowa and Montana’s objection to their lawsuit against the Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery merger.
“Upon consideration of plaintiffs’ motion for expedited consideration, it is hereby ordered that defendants are allowed until September 25, 2026, to file responses to the motion for leave to file a bill of complaint,” the court said in an order on Wednesday.
The move comes after Republican Attorneys General Brenna Bird and Austin Knudsen previously filed a motion asking the court to block the states’ “politicized” antitrust lawsuit against the pending $110 billion deal.
Bird and Knudsen argue that the litigation is depriving the Iowa and Montana economies of the benefits of the deal and harming “tens of thousands of employees of Paramount and Warner Bros., as well as hundreds of millions who watch their movies, shows, and news through a variety of sources” in the process.
They also said that the Supreme Court is the only venue that can resolve a “controversy between sovereigns” and that it should “enjoin the Defendant States’ suit and decide the issue for itself, ensuring a prompt and fair adjudication of the merger.”At the time, the pair requested a response deadline of Sept. 15 and an Oct. 9 conference hearing.
A spokesperson for Bonta’s office previously told TheWrap that the state was reviewing the filing and would “respond as appropriate.”
While the court is considering Iowa and Montana’s request for “expedited consideration,” it does not necessarily mean that it will ultimately take up their case. Even if Iowa and Montana could get oral arguments scheduled between Oct. 2026 and before the merger trial kicks off in March 2027, a decision wouldn’t be made for months.
Notably, Paramount CEO David Ellison is on the hook for a 25 cent per share ticking fee, which translates to $650 million per quarter or $7 million per day until the deal is closed, starting Oct. 1. He would also be on the hook for a $7 billion termination fee if the deal does not close at all due to regulatory matters.
Paramount has agreed to delay the closing of the merger until five days after the outcome of a trial, or June 1, 2027, whichever comes earliest. The final deadline to close the merger is June 4, 2027.
In the meantime, Ellison has demanded that Bonta and the other state AGs post a bond to cover the $1.9 billion in ticking fees that will be incurred during the delay.
“If plaintiffs insist that this transaction is paused during the pendency of their lawsuit, they must accept the financial consequences if their challenge ultimately fails. Paramount agreed to delay closing to facilitate a prompt resolution of the case, while expressly preserving its legal rights and we continue to honor that agreement,” a Paramount spokesperson previously told TheWrap. “We are not asking the district court to lift the no-close order, but to require enforcement of the bond that protects our financial interests while the litigation remains pending.”
In their own legal brief filed last week, Bonta and the AGs argued that the ticking fees Paramount would incur were self-imposed penalties that the studio added to encourage Warner Bros. to abandon its previous tentative agreement to be acquired by Netflix, and that the costs should not be covered by California taxpayers and non-profit union.
A hearing on whether to impose a bond has been scheduled for Sept. 24 — a day before AGs are required to respond to Iowa and Montana’s objection.
