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Supreme Court lets party committees keep cheap TV ad rates

Washington, District of ColumbiaPublished 5 Sep 2026

The Supreme Court of the United States in Washington, D.C.
The Supreme Court of the United States in Washington, D.C.

Mathieu Landretti / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source

An unsigned stay paused a Fourth Circuit ruling that had limited the FCC’s lowest-unit-charge discount to candidates. Justice Jackson dissented.

The Supreme Court on Sept. 4 granted an emergency stay in NRCC v. Brown, restoring FCC guidance that political party committees and joint fundraising committees can buy broadcast ads at the same lowest-unit-charge rates as candidates during the 60-day window before the midterms. Republican committees NRCC and NRSC sought the stay after the Fourth Circuit set aside a March FCC Media Bureau notice. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented. Democrats said the discount helps GOP war chests more than candidate-funded Democratic campaigns.

Shared facts

The Supreme Court on Friday granted an emergency stay pausing a Fourth Circuit ruling on political advertising rates.

The stay came in an unsigned order.

The Supreme Court issued the stay 8-1.

Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson was the lone public dissenter.

Jackson wrote that the party committees were not likely to succeed on their argument that the Fourth Circuit lacked jurisdiction.

The order lets political parties and joint fundraising committees receive candidate-level broadcast rates for coordinated ads, restoring FCC guidance.

The majority said the Fourth Circuit likely lacked statutory jurisdiction because an FCC application for review was still pending.

The Court said the party committees had shown they would likely suffer irreparable harm without a stay.

Party committees said broadcasters were already rescinding the favorable rates.

The Court said current and future rescissions would require party committees to pay more for ads and hamper outreach before the midterms.

The Court said that injury implicates First Amendment rights to speak and coordinate and cannot be remedied by refunds.

The stay remains while the committees seek Supreme Court review, or until the Court denies review or decides the case.

Lowest-unit-charge rates take effect 60 days before a general election, a window that opened Friday for the midterms.

Federal law requires broadcasters to charge legally qualified candidates the lowest unit charge in the 45 days before a primary and 60 days before a general election.

On March 30, 2026, the FCC Media Bureau issued a public notice saying political parties and joint fundraising committees can get those rates when coordinating with candidates.

Democratic candidates asked the FCC to review the notice, then went to the Fourth Circuit before the agency acted.

The Democratic challengers include Sen. Jon Ossoff, Rep. Kristen McDonald Rivet, Sherrod Brown, and Roy Cooper.

Roy Cooper is the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate in North Carolina.

A divided Fourth Circuit panel set aside the public notice, holding that neither parties nor joint fundraising committees with non-candidate members are entitled to the lowest unit charge.

The Fourth Circuit ruling was 2-1.

Judge Robert King wrote that the statute is unambiguous and gives the rates only to a candidate for personal use.

Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson dissented, saying the Fourth Circuit got involved too soon because the FCC had not issued a final order.

The National Republican Congressional Committee and National Republican Senatorial Committee asked the Supreme Court to stay the Fourth Circuit decision.

The Republican committees argued the public notice was staff-level guidance, not a final FCC order the appeals court could review.

The Trump administration, including the solicitor general and the FCC, backed the stay request.

Solicitor General D. John Sauer argued the notice offers the same benefit to both parties and does not favor one side.

Sauer argued the Democratic candidates lacked standing to sue.

In June the Supreme Court struck down federal limits on party spending coordinated with candidates.

Republican party committees have more money on hand than their Democratic counterparts heading into the midterms.

The RNC reported more than $130 million on hand at the end of July, while the DNC had about $16 million and owed $18 million.

The NRCC and NRSC told the Court they had budgeted tens of millions of dollars in ad buys at the cheaper rates.

Democratic candidates said extending the discount to parties would dilute their cheap-time right and force them to raise and spend more.

Campaign Legal Center filed a brief supporting the Democratic candidates.

The Republican National Committee filed a brief supporting a stay.

The RNC argued the Democratic candidates jumped the line by going to court while their FCC application for review was still pending.

Challengers said the FCC had long taken the position that only candidates and their campaign committees get the lowest unit charge.

Under federal law, stations must give candidates and their campaign committees favorable rates during election season.

The Democratic candidates urged the Supreme Court to leave the Fourth Circuit ruling in place.

Political media buyers said the Fourth Circuit disrupted established industry practice.

ABA Journal

In boost to GOP, Supreme Court says parties should get lower TV ad rates

Julian Mark, Clara Ence Morse and Matthew Choi

Published 4 Sep 2026 accessed 5 Sep 2026

Facts

Parties until recently were limited in coordinated spending with candidates and have not enjoyed such discounts in significant amounts.

Rodriguez said committees have received the lowest unit rate on coordinated spending for nearly five decades.

On Friday the NRSC, a party in the case, cheered the high court's ruling.

Opinion

The ruling potentially hands a near-term win to the GOP.

ABA Journal said the Court’s intervention will allow the GOP to stretch its coffers further for its candidates.

ABA Journal said those candidate discounts in theory boost democracy.

NRSC communications director Joanna Rodriguez said the candidate rate on coordinated TV spending stretches the committee's hard dollars further than ever.

DSCC executive director Devan Barber and DCCC deputy Will Van Nuys said Trump and national Republicans are trying to flood the midterms with billionaire donor money.

Rodriguez said the NRSC will fight Democrats' frivolous and partisan attempts to upend that precedent.

Democrats accused Republicans of trying to inject more money into politics.

Barber and Van Nuys said Democrats will fight tooth-and-nail to win both chambers now that the rules are known.

Barber and Van Nuys told Republicans who pushed for the ruling to be careful what they wish for.

CBS News

Supreme Court sides with Republicans in fight over broadcast ad rates

Melissa Quinn

Published 4 Sep 2026 accessed 5 Sep 2026

Facts

The NRCC has reserved $10.8 million in television ads for 23 House races this month, according to the group and AdImpact.

Ossoff and McDonald Rivet are seeking reelection, and Brown and Cooper are running for the Senate.

The dispute involves the rates broadcasters charge for political ads before federal elections.

Opinion

The decision could be a boon for national Republican groups that can flood the airwaves with more ads.

CBS described the stay as a GOP win weeks before the November elections.

Cooper campaign manager Jeff Allen said the Court ignored the law's clear language and gave a massive TV ad discount to billionaires.

Allen said former RNC Chair Michael Whatley will be first in line to benefit from the RNC's $130 million war chest.

The Republicans wrote that a divided Fourth Circuit panel rewrote longstanding preferential broadcast-rate rules in election season.

The Republicans wrote that Democrats were seeking to upend the status quo by limiting the favorable rates to candidates.

Louisville Courier Journal

SCOTUS blocks ruling for Cooper, Dems on broadcast advertising rates

Mitch Kokai

Published 4 Sep 2026 accessed 5 Sep 2026

Facts

The Court said the Fourth Circuit’s jurisdictional holding splits with every other circuit to have considered the issue.

The Democrats said the solicitor general last year told the Court the statute requires low rates for candidate spending but not party spending.

The RNC said the lower court changed the rules during the last few months of an election.

King wrote that the court grants the petition and sets aside the public notice.

GOP lawyers wrote that the Democratic House and Senate candidates disagree with that interpretation.

King wrote that the 4th Circuit was confident of its jurisdiction to review the public notice.

Judge James Wynn joined King’s majority opinion.

Wynn wrote that the majority gives the public adequate notice of the ground rules for the upcoming elections.

Wilkinson wrote that collaboration between candidates and parties has formed the essence of the nation’s party system since the Founding.

King and Wynn were appointed by Democratic presidents.

Opinion

Wilkinson wrote that it was a shame the majority assaulted that party-system essence.

Inside Radio

Political Ad Rate Fight Reaches Supreme Court

Published 4 Sep 2026 accessed 5 Sep 2026

Facts

Democrats oppose restoring the FCC’s expanded lowest-unit-charge policy.

The Fourth Circuit made its ruling effective Aug. 27 after denying the Republican committees a stay.

The general election is Nov. 3.

The Democrats argued GOP committees are not suffering irreparable harm simply because stations charge market rates.

CLC argued the FCC policy could open lowest political rates to advertising substantially financed by super PACs.

The Democrats said the appeals court did not bar stations from voluntarily offering party discounts, only that committees are not legally entitled to them.

National Media, Smart Media Group and FlexPoint Media joined the RNC in a brief supporting the NRCC and NRSC.

Opinion

No opinion marked.

SCOTUSblog

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

Amy Howe

Published 4 Sep 2026 accessed 5 Sep 2026

Facts

The ruling the committees sought to freeze was from the Fourth Circuit.

Wilkinson said the statute can accommodate and may favor the FCC's view.

The Democratic candidates said no court has ever held or hinted that the preferential rates should be available to anyone other than candidates.

The candidates said rival party committees have promised to spend hundreds of millions at the candidate rate to obliterate Democratic candidates.

The candidates said federal law lets courts of appeals review such agency actions once a challenger has filed an FCC application for review.

Jackson pointed to cases holding that an agency cannot defeat judicial review by inaction and that missing a statutory requirement does not strip a court of authority.

Opinion

Wilkinson added that the Fourth Circuit decision restricts political speech in the period leading up to an election.