TMZ’s Harvey Levin points out that A&E knew about Phil Robertson’s views, since his sermons and other speeches are on YouTube.
This means they can’t be firing him for cause, since they knew about his theology before they hired him – and when they approved the GQ magazine interview with him.
So they are in violation of contract. Their only options were to never have hired him or to not renew his contract.
This raises a further question Levin didn’t ask: is this all a publicity stunt to get A&E and GQ a bigger audience?