Iowa and Montana Ask Supreme Court to Block 12-State Lawsuit Halting Paramount's $110 Billion Warner Bros. Discovery Takeover

Two Republican state attorneys general have gone straight to the U.S. Supreme Court to stop a multistate lawsuit that is holding up one of the largest media mergers ever attempted.

Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird and Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen filed a 56-page motion with the Supreme Court on Aug. 26, 2026, asking the justices to block an antitrust suit brought by California and 11 other states that seeks to halt Paramount's $110 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery. The filing, titled Iowa v. Arizona, names California and the other 11 state defendants directly. (Variety)

The 12-state suit was filed on Aug. 25, 2026, according to Bird's office, by a coalition of Democratic attorneys general. California AG Rob Bonta first announced the litigation on July 13, 2026, when he said California and 11 other states would sue to stop the deal. (Reuters)

Iowa and Montana argue they have no other legal avenue to challenge those 12 states. Under the U.S. Constitution, the Supreme Court holds "original jurisdiction" over disputes between states — meaning certain cases between sovereign states can be filed directly with the high court rather than working their way through lower courts first. Whether the justices will agree to take it up is unclear; the court's original jurisdiction is typically reserved for matters like boundary disputes and water rights. (Variety)

The motion asks the Supreme Court to enjoin the 12-state suit — effectively freeze it — and decide the issue itself for what Bird and Knudsen call "a prompt and fair adjudication" of the merger. (Variety)

In their filing, the two states describe the Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery merger as a $110 billion deal that has already been cleared by the United States government, most American states, and competition regulators worldwide. Their core argument: 12 states should not be able to veto a transaction that the other 38 states and the federal government declined to challenge. They contend the suit burdens the national economy, harms the plaintiff states' own interests, and conflicts with the federal antitrust enforcement regime. (Variety)

Bird also published an op-ed in The Daily Wire on Aug. 25, 2026, laying out her intention to turn to the Supreme Court to challenge what she characterised as a politicised antitrust action by Democratic state AGs. (Variety)

The legal fight has been building for weeks. On July 20, 2026, a federal judge ordered Paramount Skydance — the combined entity led by CEO David Ellison — to temporarily pause its acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery while the states' antitrust case proceeds. Reuters reported that a court could order the two companies to hold their assets separate, which would delay $6 billion in cost cuts that Paramount has said the deal would yield. (Reuters)

For the crews, writers' rooms, and production staffs across both companies, the pause is more than a legal footnote. A merged Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery would consolidate two of Hollywood's largest studios under one roof — and the cost cuts promised in the deal mean real decisions about which shows continue, which are shelved, and which teams are disbanded. Every week the merger sits in limbo is a week those decisions stay frozen.

The Supreme Court has not indicated whether it will hear the motion.