Broadcasters selling political time this fall will keep working under the FCC Media Bureau's March Public Notice on lowest unit charges. The U.S. Supreme Court extended the temporary stay it issued the week before, setting aside a Fourth Circuit ruling that would have forced the FCC to decide a challenge to that notice almost immediately.
The March notice "reminded" broadcasters that lowest unit charges apply to advertising bought by political parties and joint fundraising committees when a federal candidate authorizes it. Lowest unit charge is the rule that legally qualified candidates get a station's lowest rate for a class of time during the windows before primaries and general elections, so the notice widened the range of buyers stations had to price that way.
Several Democratic candidates filed an application for review asking the full Commission to reconsider the notice, then went to the Fourth Circuit with a mandamus petition. The appeals court granted it and ordered the FCC to rule by October 9. The Supreme Court found that order inappropriate. It said the Communications Act of 1934 requires the FCC to act on every application for review it receives but sets no deadline for doing so, and certainly not the 48 hours the Fourth Circuit allowed.
The Court also said the Fourth Circuit's order would have pushed the FCC to abandon its deliberations while it was still reviewing comments on the candidates' application and on a related application for review filed by TVB. Both applications remain pending, and they raise challenges to the constitutionality of the lowest unit charge and related political advertising rules.
For now, stations should continue to treat qualifying party and joint fundraising committee buys under the March notice, and keep watching the FCC for action on the two pending applications for review.