The Supreme Court will be precluded until late May at the earliest from deciding whether to consider challenges to a federal appeals court decision overturning Federal Communications Commission media ownership deregulation. The high court has extended from April 1 until May 2 a filing deadline for arguments against the challenges.

Andrew Schwartzman, president of the Media Access Project, said the postponement — along with a series of others in the case requested by the Department of Justice — makes it unlikely that the high court would be able to rule on the case before early next year, assuming it decides to accept the challenges for review.