Chief Justice Roberts Stays Fourth Circuit Order Directing FCC to Rule on Party Ad Rates; Response Due Oct. 10

In No. 26A476, FCC v. Brown, Chief Justice Roberts ordered that the Fourth Circuit’s October 7, 2026 judgment in case No. 26-2230 is stayed pending further order of the undersigned or of the Court, in an order dated the 8th day of October 2026, and set a response to the application for Saturday, October 10, 2026, by 5 p.m. (EDT). SCOTUSblog reports that Solicitor General D. John Sauer had asked the Court to block a Fourth Circuit order directing the FCC to decide by noon on Friday, Oct. 9, on a challenge to its public notice, which would extend the favorable ad rates to parties and committees; a divided panel granted the candidates’ request on Wednesday. Sauer urged an immediate administrative stay and wrote that the court of appeals had “seriously erred in trying to short-circuit the Commission’s deliberations,” calling the panel’s order an “egregious intrusion into the nation’s electoral process.”

This is a pause on a lower-court order, not a ruling on the merits. The FCC’s Media Bureau issued the underlying notice on March 30, indicating that political parties and joint fundraising committees should also receive the favorable rates, and on Sept. 4 the Supreme Court had put the Fourth Circuit’s earlier decision on hold. See the earlier emergency-docket entry 2026-08-24–scotus-shadow-docket-stay-lifts-block-trump-mail-ballot-eo for context on the interim docket.