The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Congress could prohibit public stations from running paid ads on political issues and candidates. The majority felt that running ads of that sort posed a threat to public programming. (Reuters, December 2, 2013)
A Ninth Circuit three-judge panel had found the prohibition on political ads unconstitutional. A California nonprofit that ran two public television stations had argued that the restrictions on political ads violated the First Amendment in restricting content-based speech. (Courthouse News Service, December 2, 2013, b y Tim Hull)