President Trump and Republican campaign organizations just caught another major break at the Supreme Court with the midterm elections less than a month away.

Chief Justice John Roberts froze an appeals-court order that threatened to force the Federal Communications Commission into an immediate ruling on discounted political advertising rates.

The move keeps the FCC’s current policy alive while the legal fight continues, preserving a valuable advertising advantage for political parties and qualifying joint fundraising committees during the most expensive stretch of the campaign.

The latest appeals-court order immediately raised a serious question about the Supreme Court’s earlier intervention:

The U.S. Supreme Court put the procedural fight in plain language in its one-page order.

ADVERTISEMENT

Roberts stayed the Fourth Circuit’s October 7 judgment in Federal Communications Commission v. Sherrod Brown, et al., docket No. 26A476, pending another order from him or the full Court.

The order also gave Brown and the other challengers until 5 p.m. Eastern on Saturday, October 10, to respond. That means the dispute remains alive, but the appeals court’s deadline cannot force the FCC’s hand while the Supreme Court considers what comes next.

This is temporary relief, not a final decision on the legality of the FCC policy. It is still a meaningful win for the Trump administration because the policy remains in place during the closing weeks of the campaign instead of being disrupted by a judicial deadline.

Fresh reporting on Friday confirmed the immediate result: Roberts gave the FCC breathing room in a fight with real consequences for campaign budgets.

The Federal Communications Commission explains that the fight began with March guidance on the “lowest unit charge” broadcasters must offer during election season. The FCC said that favorable rate can extend beyond individual candidates to authorized committees engaged in joint fundraising and to political-party advertisements that qualify as coordinated expenditures.

Four Democratic candidates challenged that guidance: Sherrod Brown of Ohio, Jon Ossoff of Georgia, Roy Cooper of North Carolina, and Kristen McDonald Rivet of Michigan. Their campaigns argue that federal law reserves the lowest rate for candidates and that extending it to party organizations dilutes the benefit Congress gave them.

The FCC opened a formal review process and sought public comment in September. The Fourth Circuit nevertheless ordered the agency to finish the dispute by noon Friday, accusing it of dragging out the process until judicial review would come too late to affect the election.

Broadcasters immediately recognized the practical effect of Roberts’s order on the lowest-unit-rate fight:

The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals described the underlying rule as a guarantee that qualified candidates can buy comparable broadcast time at a station’s lowest rate during the 45 days before a primary and the 60 days before a general election.

ADVERTISEMENT

The disputed FCC guidance broadens access to that price for coordinated party spending and certain joint fundraising activity. In a tight election, the difference between ordinary commercial rates and the lowest available political rate can translate into far more airtime for the same dollars.

The Democratic candidates argued that the broader policy would dilute the statutory advantage Congress gave candidates themselves. The FCC responded that its March notice reflected existing law and agency guidance rather than a brand-new campaign-finance rule.

The timing sharpened every part of the dispute. The guidance took effect on September 4 for the November general election, placing the legal fight inside the 60-day window when the lowest-unit-charge protection has its greatest practical value.

A divided appellate panel had already tried to stop the policy once before the Supreme Court intervened in September. When the Fourth Circuit ordered the FCC to complete its review by Friday, the administration returned to the high court and asked Roberts to prevent another last-minute disruption.

Roll Call detailed the unusual timing. The Fourth Circuit issued its command on Wednesday, the Trump administration went to the Supreme Court on Thursday, and Roberts paused the lower-court judgment before the FCC’s Friday deadline arrived.

The administration argued that the appeals court committed a “flagrant abuse” by intervening before the commission completed its own review. It also warned against forcing a campaign-finance decision in the middle of an election already underway.

President Trump’s team did not win the entire case Thursday. It won the round that determines which rule controls right now, when television and radio time is most valuable and every campaign dollar is under pressure.

Democrats wanted the FCC boxed into an immediate decision. Chief Justice Roberts refused to let the appeals court set that clock.

For the moment, the Trump administration’s policy survives, Republican organizations keep access to the favorable rates, and the legal battle moves back to the Supreme Court on a timetable the lower court no longer controls.

ADVERTISEMENT

This is a Guest Post from our friends over at WLTReport. View the original article here.

 

Join The Conversation. Leave a Comment.