The US Supreme Court has handed Republicans a temporary legal victory over campaign television advertising rates ahead of the midterm elections, granting an emergency appeal backed by the Trump administration. The order halts a lower court ruling that had sided with Democrats in restricting discounted broadcast advertising rates to individual candidates only, rather than extending them to party-coordinated adverts. The decision matters because it affects how much Republican party committees will pay for airtime in the run-up to the midterms, at a time when campaign spending is under intense scrutiny.

The dispute centres on federal rules allowing candidates discounted rates for election-period airtime, which the FCC's Media Bureau argued should also apply to some party-coordinated adverts. Georgia senator Jon Ossoff was among four Democrats who challenged that interpretation and won at the US 4th Circuit Court of Appeals, prompting the National Republican Congressional Committee and National Republican Senatorial Committee to seek Supreme Court intervention. The justices found the lower court had acted prematurely, out of step with other courts, warning that ongoing rate rollbacks would force party committees to pay more for advertising space "in the critical weeks leading up to the midterms." The ruling follows other recent legal battles over the midterms, including Governor Gavin Newsom's countermove against Republican redistricting efforts earlier this year.