The Supreme Court delivered a victory to Republicans in key Senate races Friday with a ruling that allows GOP political committees to coordinate on campaign ads and pay the lowest possible rates.
Democrats had fought the GOP, fearing they would be outspent in those races.
But the high court said their legal challenge is premature and they need to wait for a ruling by the Federal Communications Commission on their complaint before they turn to the courts.
At issue is what’s known as the “lowest unit charge” rule, which guarantees political campaigns pay the lowest possible rate for ads broadcast in the weeks leading up to an election.
The FCC, in a staff notice in March, told broadcasters the lowest unit charge applied not just to candidates but also to coordinated campaigns, when the candidates are acting in concert with political party committees such as the National Senatorial Campaign Committee.
Democratic candidates sued, saying the law applies only to the candidate committees and not the coordinated operations.
The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed, issuing a ruling setting aside the FCC’s March notice, causing some broadcasters to quickly rescind the lower rates they had offered.
The justices’ new ruling blocks the 4th Circuit decision while the case develops further.
The result likely means coordinated committees can once again demand the lowest ad rates.
The lower rates apply to both parties, but Republicans are expected to benefit more because the GOP has invested more effort in raising money for coordinated campaigns this cycle.
Republicans said they have tens of millions of dollars in advertising that can now be stretched further, given the lower rates.
Democrats, meanwhile, are bracing for the “deluge” of GOP money.
The Supreme Court’s ruling came in an unsigned opinion.
Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson wrote a brief dissent saying she agreed with the 4th Circuit’s reasoning that the case was ripe for judges to hear.
The crux of that dispute is whether Democrats had exhausted other remedies before turning to the federal courts.
The high court majority said since the Democrats filed a complaint with the full FCC, they must wait for the agency to rule before appealing to the circuit courts.
“Because the candidates’ application for review was pending when they filed their petition for review, the Fourth Circuit likely lacked statutory jurisdiction to address their challenge,” the majority opinion said.
The ruling comes just months after the high court, in a separate case, ruled that limits on coordinated campaign spending were unconstitutional.
The Democratic plaintiffs in the case included Sen. Jon Ossoff of Georgia, former Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio and former Gov. Roy Cooper of North Carolina, all of whom are running for Senate this year. That gives a sense of races where the coordinated ad rates could play a significant role.
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