WASHINGTON, Oct. 16 -- Sherrod Brown and three other Democratic candidates have waited more than five months for the Federal Communications Commission to say whether party committees may buy campaign airtime at the rate the law reserves for candidates. Brown, the former senator now challenging Sen. Jon Husted in the Ohio Senate race, had won a court order forcing an answer by October 9. On Wednesday, less than three weeks before the November 3 election, the Supreme Court put that order on hold.

In an unsigned opinion, the justices stayed the October 7 Fourth Circuit order, which had given the agency 48 hours. The Communications Act "does not obligate the Commission to act within a particular timeframe," the Court wrote, and separation of...