Court grants request from Republican groups to pause ruling, for now, on political broadcasting rates

The useful part

Friday cleared the way for political parties and joint fundraising committees, at least for now, to receive favorable advertising rates in the upcoming midterm elections. In a four-page, unsigned opinion, the justices temporarily paused a ruling by a federal appeals court in Richmond, Virginia, that limited the favorable rates to candidates for federal office. She would have turned down the request by the National Republican Senatorial Committee and the National Republican Congressional Committee to freeze the ruling by the U.S.

How it works

• Under federal election law, candidates for federal office can purchase advertising time at preferential rates during the run-up to elections: 45 days before the primary election and 60 days before the general.
• On March 30, the Federal Communications Commission's Media Bureau issued a "public notice" indicating that political parties and joint fundraising committees would also be entitled to the more favorable rates.
• Jon Ossoff of Georgia and three other Democrats who are candidates for the House or Senate went to the full FCC on April 29, asking it to review the public notice.
• Approximately six weeks later, before the agency had acted on their application for review, they went to federal court, where they argued that the public notice was inconsistent with federal election laws.
• Writing for the majority, Judge Robert King held that federal law is "unambiguous": it gives the preferential rates only to a "candidate" for his o...

Details worth keeping

Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson was the lone dissenter.