4th Circuit Court Blocks FCC Political Ad Rate Discounts

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit blocked a Federal Communications Commission (FCC) plan to extend discounted broadcast television advertising rates to political party and joint fundraising committees. The Republican-controlled FCC intended to grant these committees the same low rates available to individual political candidates before the November midterm elections.

Four Democratic candidates for Congress, including Senator Jon Ossoff and Representative Kristen McDonald Rivet, filed a lawsuit to stop the rule change. They argued the expansion would increase coordinated campaign spending. In a 2-1 decision, the court ruled that campaign finance statutes do not entitle political parties or joint fundraising committees with non-candidate members to these discounts.

The court found that the FCC failed to provide previous guidance supporting the expansion of these rates, rejecting arguments from the FCC and Republican committees that the court lacked jurisdiction. Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III dissented, arguing the majority sought to "wrest jurisdiction from the FCC before the commissioners can perform the role Congress assigned to them."

The ruling arrives shortly before the lowest-cost advertising period for candidates begins on September 4. The Elias Law Group, which represented the Democratic candidates, characterized the ruling as "a huge blow to the Republican Party."