Supreme Court sides with Trump in war over TV ad rate for midterms

Filed 1h ago · Via Courthouse News · The Buffoon Desk

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Five Card Shuffle

Kevin MacLeod · incompetech.com · CC BY 4.0

Photo: Artuš Scheiner · Public domain · via Wikimedia Commons

The Supreme Court ruled 7-2 Wednesday to block a Fourth Circuit order that would have forced the FCC to rule by October 9 on Democrats' challenge to a March policy letting political party committees claim candidate-level discount ad rates. The court called the appeals order 'extraordinary' and 'inappropriate,' siding with the Trump administration's argument that forcing a deadline on the agency intruded on its deliberative process.

The discount rules apply to both parties on paper, but Republican committees tend to outraise their candidates while Democratic candidates tend to outraise their committees, meaning the March guidance tilts the practical benefit toward the GOP. Democratic Senate candidates including Jon Ossoff, Sherrod Brown, and Roy Cooper petitioned the FCC months ago and are still waiting for an answer, a wait the Supreme Court just blessed indefinitely.

The full dispatch is available from the source below.

✒ FROM THE EDITORIAL DESK

An agency can sit on a complaint for months, and when a court finally says pick a date, the Supreme Court calls that the real overreach. Funny how 'we don't obligate the Commission to act within a particular timeframe' lands exactly in time to help the side it helps before the votes get cast in November. Sotomayor and Jackson dissented, which these days is about as surprising as the sun rising, but the math on who benefits from the delay isn't hidden at all.

Source: Read the original at Courthouse News → Scored: Five Card Shuffle · Kevin MacLeod · CC BY 4.0