GOP heads to Supreme Court after losing case over TV election ad prices
GOP campaign committees want quick ruling before election ads ramp up next week.
GOP campaign committees want quick ruling before election ads ramp up next week.
The short version
- Republican campaign committees want the Supreme Court to mandate lower prices for election commercials on broadcast TV stations.
- If the court agrees, broadcasters would be forced to offer their lowest ad prices to political parties and joint fundraising committees.
- For a more thorough description of the legal issues in the dispute, see this article that Ars published yesterday.
What happened
In short, US law requires broadcasters to offer individual candidates the “lowest unit charge,” or LUC, during the 60 days before an election. The law helps level the playing field somewhat by letting candidates make their cases to voters who watch broadcast TV without needing to raise exorbitant sums of money.
Why it matters
Four Democratic candidates appealed, and a judges’ panel at the US Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit ruled that the FCC order cannot be enforced because it contradicts the plain language of US law.
Summary by Nerd News Network. Read the full article at Ars Technica via the links above and below.