A federal appeals court has blocked a Trump administration FCC order that would have expanded discounted political ad rates on broadcast television ahead of the upcoming elections. The ruling, issued this week, halts a policy that critics said could have driven a surge of election advertising onto local airwaves.
At the center of the case is the lowest unit charge, or LUC, a rate that broadcasters must offer to qualified political advertisers during defined windows before an election. The Federal Communications Commission had recently directed broadcasters to extend those lowest advertising rates to political parties and joint fundraising committees, not just individual candidates. Four Democratic candidates challenged that decision, arguing that US law reserves the LUC for candidates alone.
What the appeals court decided
In a 2-1 vote, a panel of the US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit sided with the candidates and set aside the FCC decision, which had been scheduled to take effect on September 4. That date marks the beginning of the 60-day period before an election during which broadcasters must offer the lowest ad rates to qualified candidates.
The panel wrote that candidates are clearly entitled to the LUC, but that the dispute centered on whether political parties and joint fundraising committees with non-candidate members could also qualify. The judges concluded they could not, finding that the LUC rule and campaign finance statutes are clear on the point. US law requires the lowest ad rates for “any person who is a legally qualified candidate for any public office.” The panel ruled that “the statutory text is unambiguous, and it provides no support for the Media Bureau’s significant and unilateral expansion of the LUC requirement.”
The FCC Media Bureau had asserted in a March 30 public notice that parties and authorized committees designated by candidates were eligible for the discounts. The National Republican Congressional Committee and the National Republican Senatorial Committee supported the FCC’s position during the litigation.
Who brought the case
The ruling was written by Judge Robert King, a Clinton appointee, joined by Judge James Wynn, an Obama appointee, who also filed a concurring opinion. Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III, a Reagan appointee, dissented.
The suit was filed by former senator and current candidate Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.), Senate candidate Roy Cooper (D-N.C.) and former governor of North Carolina, and US Rep. Kristen McDonald Rivet (D-Mich.). Their law firm described the decision as a major setback for Republicans.
“Congress created the lowest unit charge for federal candidates, and the Fourth Circuit confirmed today that candidate means candidate, not political party or joint fundraising committee,” said a statement from Elias Law Group partners Rachel Jacobs and Jacquelyn Lopez. The firm said the ruling denied the Republican Party lower rates that Congress reserved for federal candidates alone.
The decision sets aside the FCC public notice entirely, leaving the discounted rate structure available only to legally qualified candidates during the pre-election window that begins September 4.
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Image: arstechnica.com
