• by Wayne Friedman , June 27, 2007

TV stations looking for another upswing from political advertising can thank the Supreme Court, which loosened restrictions over corporate- and union-funded TV ads that air close to elections.

The Court upheld an appeals court ruling that an anti-abortion group should have been allowed to air ads during the last two months of the 2004 election. The Court, in a 5-4 decision, said the current law limited speech and violated the group's First Amendment rights. The ruling split along the usual conservative/liberal lines.

The case involved commercials that the Wisconsin Right to Life was prevented from broadcasting. They urged voters to write the state's two senators, Democrats Russ Feingold and Herb Kohl, and ask them not to filibuster President Bush's judicial nominees.

The key point for the majority: the commercials didn't cast the candidates in a positive or negative light. Nor did they ask voters to vote for or against them. Had the ads done so, the decision may have been decided against them.

The ads could have been run had they been paid for out of the group's political action committee, which are subject to federal campaign-finance limits. Sponsors of such ads have contended they are exempt from certain limits on contributions in federal elections.

The Bush administration urged the court to ban the ads, arguing that they were intended to influence the elections, not lobby the senators.

Last year, TV stations added almost $2 billion in political advertising to their coffers--a record.