[JURIST] The US Supreme Court on Monday let stand without comment a lower court ruling that overturned new FCC regulations that would have allowed greater media consolidation. Several major media conglomerates, including News Corp. [corporate website], Clear Channel [corporate website], and Viacom [corporate website], originally sought the rules in order to allow a single company to own more media outlets in a market [Bloomberg report]. Consumer advocates challenged the laws [Reuters report], fearing they would hurt diversity in viewpoints. The Third Circuit then ruled [backgrounder; opinion PDF] that the FCC "has not sufficiently justified its particular chosen numerical limits. . . for ownership of media within local markets." AP has more.