Supreme Court sides with GOP in TV ad rate war

Filed 2h ago · Via Courthouse News · The Buffoon Desk

THIS STORY IS SCORED

Super Polka

Kevin MacLeod · incompetech.com · CC BY 4.0

Photo: Giovanni Battista Quadrone · Public domain · via Wikimedia Commons

The Supreme Court ruled 8-1 to block a Fourth Circuit decision that had limited discounted broadcast ad rates to individual candidates rather than party committees. The National Republican Congressional and Senatorial Committees had sought the emergency intervention, arguing broadcasters were already rescinding favorable rates.

The FCC's media bureau issued guidance in March extending the lowest-unit-charge discount to party and joint fundraising committees, a move Democratic candidates including Jon Ossoff and Sherrod Brown challenged as benefiting Republicans, whose party committees typically outraise their own candidates. The Fourth Circuit had sided with the Democrats before the Supreme Court intervened.

Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented alone, arguing agencies should not be able to defeat judicial review through delay, since the FCC has not yet ruled on the underlying petition. The rate rules were set to take effect the same day as the ruling.

The full dispatch is available from the source below.

✒ FROM THE EDITORIAL DESK

An 8-1 vote to help the side that argued it would suffer 'irreparable harm' if it had to pay full price for TV ads is one way to spend a Friday. The FCC has not even ruled on the underlying complaint, but the court decided the wait itself was the emergency. Funny how often the party with the thinner wallet argument turns out to be the one every rule seems built to rescue.

Source: Read the original at Courthouse News → Scored: Super Polka · Kevin MacLeod · CC BY 4.0

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