{"id":604,"date":"2026-09-03T17:42:40","date_gmt":"2026-09-03T17:42:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/americanservicereview.com\/?p=604"},"modified":"2026-09-03T17:42:40","modified_gmt":"2026-09-03T17:42:40","slug":"sen-jon-ossoff-and-other-democratic-candidates-urge-justices-to-leave-court-ruling-in-place-on-political-broadcasting-rates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/americanservicereview.com\/?p=604","title":{"rendered":"Sen. Jon Ossoff and other Democratic candidates urge justices to leave court ruling in place on political broadcasting rates"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Four Democratic candidates for the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate on Thursday the justices to leave in place a ruling by a federal appeals court that limited the availability of preferential advertising rates to candidates for political office. The candidates \u2013 former Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio, who is running again in that state; Sen. Jon Ossoff of Georgia; former Gov. Roy Cooper of North Carolina, who is running for Senate there; and Rep. Kristen McDonald Rivet, who is running for reelection in Michigan \u2013 told the justices that \u201c[n]o court has ever held, or even hinted,\u201d that the preferential rates should be more broadly available. And until it issued the guidance at the center of this case, the challengers added, the FCC itself \u201chad long agreed that \u2018only candidates<\/em> are entitled to\u2019\u201d the more favorable rates.<\/p>\n

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Under\u00a0federal law, candidates for federal office can purchase advertising time at favorable rates during the 45 days before a primary election and 60 days before a general election. The dispute before the court arose this spring, after the Media Bureau of the Federal Communications Commission issued a \u201cpublic notice\u201d informing broadcasters that political parties and joint fundraising committees are also entitled to the preferential rates.<\/p>\n

The Democratic candidates asked the full FCC to review the public notice. Approximately six weeks later, before the FCC had acted on that request, they went to federal court, where they argued that the public notice conflicted with federal election laws. As a practical matter, they contended that the rule favors Republicans, whose fundraising committees have more to spend, while Democratic candidates rely more on small-money donors.<\/p>\n

A divided panel of the\u00a0 with the candidates. Writing for the majority, Judge Robert King held that federal law is \u201cunambiguous\u201d: it gives the preferential rates only to a \u201ccandidate\u201d for his or her personal use, which does not extend to a candidate\u2019s \u201cmere authorization of someone else\u2019s use.\u201d<\/p>\n

Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson dissented. In his view, because the FCC was still deliberating the issue, the court of appeals could not yet weigh in. And in any event, the text was in his view ambiguous: it can \u201caccommodate[], and may indeed favor, the FCC\u2019s view.\u201d Moreover, he added, the court\u2019s decision \u201crestrict[s] political speech in the sensitive period leading up to an election.\u201d<\/p>\n

The National Republican Senatorial Committee and the National Republican Congressional Committee, which had joined the case,\u00a0came to the Supreme Court\u00a0on Monday, the justices to pause the 4th Circuit\u2019s order while litigation continues. Like Wilkinson, they first contested the court\u2019s power to consider the challenge at all. They contended that the public notice was merely a \u201cstaff-level\u201d document \u201cthat is neither final nor an agency action\u201d \u2013 an important distinction, they said, because the court only has the power to review \u201cfinal orders of the Federal Communications Commission.\u201d<\/p>\n

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And the 4th Circuit\u2019s decision was also wrong on the merits, the committees continued. Whether an entity is entitled to a preferential rate hinges on whether a candidate or \u201cany authorized committee of the candidate\u201d\u00a0uses<\/em>\u00a0a broadcasting station before the election; who\u00a0pays<\/em>\u00a0for the advertisements is irrelevant, they argued. \u201cIndeed,\u201d they suggested, \u201ca candidate might \u2018use\u2019 a broadcasting station by appearing in an advertisement authorized by the candidate.\u201d<\/p>\n

In on Thursday, the Democratic candidates pushed back against the committees\u2019 suggestion that their challenge was not properly in the courts. They have a legal right to sue, known as standing, they argued, because of the impact that a ruling in the committees\u2019 favor would have: \u201cthe Candidates\u2019 rival party committees have promised that if the Public Notice stands,\u201d they wrote, \u201cthey will spend hundreds of millions of dollars \u2018at the candidate rate\u2019 to \u2018obliterate\u2019 Democratic candidates like\u201d the challengers in this case, \u201ccharacterizing it as \u2018a complete game changer.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Moreover, the candidates continued, they had not gone to the court of appeals too soon. Federal law, they said, specifically envisions that federal courts of appeals can review agency actions like the public notice as long as the challenger has filed an application asking the FCC to review the action \u2013 which is exactly what the candidates have done here.<\/p>\n

Finally, the candidates argued, the text of the law at the center of the case is clear that the preferential rates are only available for \u201cthe use <\/em>of any broadcasting station by any person who is a legally qualified candidate<\/em> for any public office in connection with his campaign.\u201d This language, the candidates said, \u201ccovers advertisements purchased by the candidate or their principal campaign committee on their behalf, but not advertisements that are purchased by party committees or [joint fundraising committees] who are not,\u201d under federal election law and regulations, \u201cacting on behalf of candidates when purchasing the ads in question.\u201d Indeed, the candidates noted, just last year in another election-law case, the U.S. solicitor general told the justices that the rules governing preferential rates \u201crequire broadcasters to charge low rates for candidate spending, but not for party spending\u2014whether coordinated or independent.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Four Democratic candidates for the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate on Thursday the justices to leave in place a ruling by a federal appeals court that limited the availability of preferential advertising rates to candidates for political office. The candidates \u2013 former Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio, who is running again in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":354,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-604","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-court-news"],"yoast_head":"\nSen. 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