Supreme Court Pauses Lower-Court Deadline in FCC Campaign Ad Rates Dispute
The Supreme Court on Oct. 8 temporarily blocked a lower-court order that would have forced the FCC to rule within two days on Democratic challenges to a campaign advertising policy, asking Democrats to respond by Oct. 10.
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Thursday temporarily blocked a lower-court order in a fight over campaign advertising rates, siding with the Trump administration for a second time in a case that could affect spending in the November midterm elections.
The justices paused an Oct. 7 ruling by the Richmond-based 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that had given the Federal Communications Commission two days to decide Democratic candidates’ objections to an FCC policy on broadcast ad rates. The Supreme Court’s temporary action lifts that immediate deadline, and the justices asked the Democratic challengers to respond to the administration’s appeal by Oct. 10, according to USA Today.
What the FCC policy changed
Federal law requires broadcasters to offer their lowest advertising rates to legally qualified candidates in the run-up to an election. In March, the FCC said that lowest-rate treatment also applies to ads run by political parties in coordination with candidates, not only to ads paid for directly by the candidates themselves, according to USA Today.
Four Democratic candidates in battleground House and Senate races, including Georgia Sen. Jon Ossoff, challenged that interpretation. The appeals court, dividing 2-1, accused the FCC of delaying a decision on the objections in a way that would keep the courts from resolving the dispute before the midterms.
Why the ruling matters for the midterms
In September, the Supreme Court also sided with Republicans in the same dispute, holding that the appeals court could not block the policy before the FCC finished its internal review of the complaint, according to USA Today.
The outcome matters because Republican party committees have raised considerably more money than their Democratic counterparts, so extending candidate rates to party-run coordinated ads could help Republicans narrow spending gaps in competitive races where Democratic candidates have outraised Republican candidates, according to USA Today. In an emergency appeal, the Justice Department argued that the FCC is still collecting public comments on the policy and that it is reasonable for the agency not to issue a campaign-finance decision in the middle of the election season, according to USA Today.
Reporting based on coverage by USA Today.
