Judge ‘Troubled’ by FTC Ad Boycott Demand to Media Group (1)

The Federal Trade Commissiongot a skeptical reception from a judge over its targeting of a nonprofit in an investigation into alleged advertising boycotts of conservative websites.

A liberal advocacy group, Media Matters for America, is challenging the agency’s demand that it turn over internal communications and other records. At a hearing Wednesday in Washington, US District Judge Sparkle Sooknanan said she was “troubled” by the FTC’s arguments that Congress intended to “close the courthouse door” to all recipients of the agency’s civil investigative demands.

The argument “would foreclose all meaningful judicial review,” she said. “How is that the ...