The injunction follows a temporary restraining order issued last month in a related challenge filed by DIRECTV, according to the press release. The court has since consolidated the states' case with DIRECTV's action.
The Federal Communications Commission and the U.S. Department of Justice recently approved the merger, the release said. The state coalition, led by Bonta, had sought an emergency order to halt the deal notwithstanding those federal approvals.
"My office and attorneys general nationwide have secured a preliminary injunction in our lawsuit opposing the illegal and U.S. DOJ-approved merger of Nexstar/Tegna — an order that demands the broadcasting titans stop merging while our case proceeds," Bonta said in the statement. "This is a critical win in our case."
Bonta added: "This merger is illegal, plain and simple. The federal government may have thrown in the towel, but we'll keep fighting for consumers, for workers, for affordability, and for our local news."
The states filed their lawsuit on March 18. According to the attorney general's office, the deal would combine the nation's largest and third-largest television-station conglomerates into an entity "covering 80% of U.S. television households."
In two California markets, the combined company would own half of the Big Four network affiliates, the release said — the FOX and ABC stations in the Sacramento-Stockton-Modesto area, and the FOX and CBS stations in San Diego.
The attorney general's office also pointed to what it described as reports in the weeks before the planned closing detailing "Nexstar's firing of long-standing journalists in Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York."