The Trump administration asked the Supreme Court Thursday to halt an appeals court’s ruling that could have significant ramifications for the advertising rates that campaigns pay in the closing weeks of the costly and hotly contested midterm elections.
The Department of Justice is asking the Supreme Court to intervene in a legal battle over the FCC’s revised rule allowing political parties and joint fundraising committees to access the more favorable television advertisement rates that are typically reserved for political candidates. Republicans have pushed for the rule due to their significant cash advantage at the party level, while Democrats have tried to keep the rule limited to candidates only, due to their own cash advantage with individual candidates.
Last month, the Supreme Court ruled 8-1 that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit had prematurely halted the rule, finding that the Federal Communications Commission must issue a decision on the Democratic candidates’ petition for review before the appeals court can get involved, but also found that the FCC was likely to succeed on the merits of the issue. On Wednesday, a three-judge panel on the 4th Circuit ordered the FCC to issue its decision by Friday, a move the Trump administration claims is to allow the appeals court to strike down the rule with less than a month to go before the elections.
“Wholly apart from the merits, a writ of mandamus is inappropriate under the circumstances of this case, given that the challengers delayed for months in seeking such relief and that judicial intervention at this late date could upend campaign-finance rules in the ‘critical weeks leading up to the midterms,’” Solicitor General D. John Sauer said in an emergency petition to the Supreme Court Thursday.
Sauer urged the high court to halt the 4th Circuit’s ruling, calling it a “flagrant abuse of the extraordinary writ of mandamus and a baseless effort to circumvent a prior stay entered by this Court.” He also noted all the procedural steps that the FCC still has to go through before it can make a decision, including opening the move to public comment, while also claiming that it is “entirely reasonable to refrain from issuing a decision on campaign-finance rules in the middle of the election season.”
SUPREME COURT HANDS GOP MAJOR CAMPAIGN FINANCE WIN AHEAD OF COSTLY MIDTERM ELECTIONS
The Trump administration asked for an administrative stay before noon on Friday, when the 4th Circuit had ordered the FCC issue a ruling.
The Supreme Court does not have a timeline for when it will issue a ruling on the emergency application. The Thursday application is the latest election-related case to make its way to the Supreme Court’s emergency docket in recent months. The other major fight on the emergency docket over the past several months has been regarding the Trump administration’s new mail ballot order, which the high court allowed to remain blocked through the midterm elections.