By John Kruzel
WASHINGTON, Oct 8 (Reuters) - Siding with Republicans, the US Supreme Court on Thursday allowed the Federal Communications Commission to avoid for now a judicially imposed deadline in a Democratic challenge to the agency's new political advertising policy.
With November midterm elections looming, Chief Justice John Roberts agreed to lift a lower court's order that gave the FCC until Friday to rule on a challenge by Democratic candidates to its revamped rule that lets party committees
pay lower TV and radio ad rates long available to political candidates.
The FCC modified the so-called "lowest unit charge" rule in March in a move seen as a boost to President Donald Trump's fellow Republicans. The president's party is seeking to retain control of Congress in the November 3 midterms.
The FCC, which currently has a 2-1 Republican majority, is chaired by Trump ally Brendan Carr.
The action by Roberts, called an administrative stay, is typically a brief pause in an ongoing dispute to give the justices additional time to consider a litigant's formal request to block a lower court's action.
The FCC joined two Republican committees in filing a request to the Supreme Court to halt the lower court's action. Roberts ordered the Democratic challengers to respond to that filing by Saturday.
The lower court in this case — the Richmond-based 4th US Circuit Court of Appeals — has accused the FCC of repeated "delay tactics," and emphasized the need for an urgent ruling in the Democratic challenge given the fast-approaching election.
The action by Roberts marks the second time in recent weeks that the Supreme Court has addressed the FCC's policy, as major Republican committees head toward the midterms with a cash advantage over their Democratic counterparts.
In September, the court granted a request by two national Republican committees to revive the policy after the 4th Circuit blocked it. The justices in an 8-1 ruling said that the Democratic candidates must wait for the FCC to rule before filing a challenge in court.
The FCC policy gained greater significance after the Supreme Court in June struck down federal restrictions on spending coordinated between parties and their candidates, siding with Republican challengers. Since the June ruling, Republican committees have blown past the former limits as Trump's party fights to retain control of Congress in the midterm elections.
The Republican committees supporting the party's candidates in Senate and House of Representatives races have exceeded the former national caps by more than $48 million, according to Federal Election Commission spending disclosures for July and August. Their Democratic counterparts also eclipsed the former limits, but by much less — just under $4 million.
The three main national Republican committees ended August with about $233 million in cash. Their Democratic counterparts held roughly $130 million but also carried nearly $18 million in debt, according to Federal Election Commission filings.
The FCC policy at issue in the current dispute requires broadcasters to charge discounted rates for airing certain political advertisements within 60 days of a general election, a window that opened this year on September 4.
A group of Democratic candidates including Senator Jon Ossoff of Georgia in April challenged the policy through in-house proceedings at the FCC. When the agency took no action, the Democrats successfully challenged the policy in the 4th Circuit, a ruling that was later halted by the justices.
The 4th Circuit on October 7 ordered the FCC to issue a prompt ruling on the Democratic in-house challenge, more than five months after it was filed. In its 2-1 ruling, the 4th Circuit said its "willingness to tolerate the FCC's delay tactics is at an end."
(Reporting by John Kruzel with additional reporting by Andrew Chung in New York)
