A federal judge has halted, at least temporarily, the approval of the settlement clearing the path for the Paramount–Warner Bros. Discovery merger.

Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín granted an emergency motion filed by members of the grassroots Block the Merger coalition less than an hour before a Thursday morning hearing set to approve the settlement agreement between Paramount and the attorneys general in the antitrust suit. The judge gave the parties a hard deadline of no later than 12:01 a.m. Friday morning to get everything in place. The 11 a.m. Thursday hearing remains on the calendar.

Block the Merger, in its filing earlier on Thursday, called the settlement struck by California Attorney General Rob Bonta bad "for the future of film, entertainment, independent journalism, and a strong democracy in this country." In a statement, members of the group called Bonta's deal "weak and unenforceable." Earlier this week, coalition members protested outside Paramount headquarters in Hollywood following the surprise settlement news.

"Hundreds of thousands of people across the country called on state attorneys general to enforce the law and to protect consumers, workers and free speech," said Free Press Co-CEO Jessica J. González, who serves as co-counsel on the motion. "The weak and unenforceable deal the AGs struck with Paramount leaves us in the lurch. We deserve our day in court."

Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, a First Amendment litigator on the Steering Committee for the Committee for the First Amendment, went further in her assessment of the consent decree. "We believe the consent decree fails to meaningfully address or mitigate the harms that will be caused by this monopoly merger to the entertainment industry, diverse storytelling, independent filmmaking, consumer interests, a free press, First Amendment rights, and fundamentally, democracy," Verheyden-Hilliard stated. "It does not serve to benefit anyone except the owner family of Paramount and those holding political power who will use this corporate consolidation as a proxy force for First Amendment suppression of disfavored expression and viewpoints."

Paramount did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The settlement agreement, reached on Monday, September 21, requires Paramount to commit to concessions for five years. If the studio fails to meet its promised 30 movies released annually, it must divest its stake in Miramax and pay $30 million into a fund for Hollywood union members. The deal also obligates Paramount to maintain some of its existing theatrical terms for the duration of the settlement, to negotiate Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery cable channels as separate entities, and to spend an additional $1.5 billion annually on production in the United States. It further requires a panel of journalists to safeguard the editorial independence of CNN and CBS News.

Block the Merger dismissed the deal as toothless. It forces no divestitures up front and provides no assurance that production dollars would be spent in California specifically.

The timing of the emergency motion carries financial weight. Paramount must begin paying a ticking fee of several million dollars a day to WBD shareholders for every day past October 1 that the deal fails to close. With the settlement reached on September 21, the parties had hoped to close the merger within a matter of weeks. Judge Martínez-Olguín's midnight deadline now determines whether that timeline survives the coalition's challenge.