The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday upheld a ruling stipulated that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) can relax media ownership rules and reversed a court decision handed down by the Third Circuit Court of Appeals. The lower court ruling had blocked the FCC’s repeal of some media ownership regulations in 2017 for failing to consider the effects on ownership by racial minorities and women before Thursday’s Supreme Court ruling. Critics of the industry have said further consolidation could limit media choices for consumers. The Prometheus Radio Project and other public interest groups challenged the FCC’s changes, arguing that the body used flawed data. But Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who wrote (pdf) for the unanimous decision, that the FCC made “a reasonable predictive judgment based on the evidence it had” in changing the rules. Kavanuagh further said that “the FCC acknowledged the gaps in the data sets it relied on, and noted that, despite …