GOP Wins at Supreme Court on TV Commercial Rates

The Supreme Court on Friday cleared the way for national Republican Party committees to buy broadcast ads at the same discounted rates that federal law guarantees to candidates in the final weeks before an election. The decision is a victory for the GOP, the New York Times reports, in time to help the party in the midterms. In an unsigned order on an emergency request, the justices said GOP committees would face irreparable harm if forced to pay higher prices, calling the issue a First Amendment matter involving their ability to speak and coordinate with candidates.

The ruling effectively blocks an August decision by the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, which had agreed with four Democratic candidates—Sen. Jon Ossoff of Georgia, former Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio, former North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, and Rep. Kristen McDonald Rivet of Michigan—that federal law clearly limits the lowest ad rates to candidates alone. The only dissent noted was from Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, per USA Today. Lawyers for the Trump administration backed Republicans in the case, arguing the Federal Communications Commission's guidance extending low rates to party committees doesn't favor either party's candidates.