The Supreme Court sided with Republicans in a dispute over discounted television and radio advertising rates, allowing the Federal Communications Commission to avoid a judicially imposed deadline for ruling on a Democratic challenge before the November 3 midterm elections. The FCC's March policy extends the lowest unit charge, a discounted rate traditionally available to legally qualified candidates during the 60 days before a general election, to political party committees. The agency is chaired by Trump ally Brendan Carr and has a 2-1 Republican majority, while the Supreme Court has a 6-3 conservative majority. Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson indicated they would have denied the request. The decision was the court's second intervention in the dispute in recent weeks. In September, the justices ruled 8-1 that Democratic candidates had to wait for the FCC to act before seeking judicial review. After the agency took no action on a challenge filed in April by Democratic candidates including Senator Jon Ossoff of Georgia, the Richmond-based 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ordered the FCC on October 7 to issue a prompt ruling, saying its tolerance for delay had ended. Chief Justice John Roberts had already lifted an October 9 deadline imposed by the appeals court. The policy has gained financial importance since the Supreme Court in June struck down federal restrictions on coordinated spending between parties and candidates. Federal Election Commission disclosures for July and August showed that two Republican committees exceeded the former national caps by more than $48 million, compared with just under $4 million for Democratic committees. The three main national Republican committees ended August with about $233 million in cash, versus roughly $130 million for their Democratic counterparts, which also carried nearly $18 million in debt.