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Supreme Court steps into fight over FCC’s $8 billion subsidies for internet and phone services


WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Friday stepped into a major legal fight over the $8 billion a year the federal government spends to subsidize phone and internet services in schools, libraries and rural areas, in a recent test of federal regulatory power.

The justices will review an appellate ruling that struck down as unconstitutional the Universal Service fund. The Federal Communications percentage collects money from telecommunications providers, who then pass the expense on to their customers.

A conservative advocacy throng, customer Research, challenged the habit. The justices had previously denied two appeals from customer Research after federal appeals courts upheld the program. But the packed 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, among the country’s most conservative, ruled 9-7 that the way of capital is unconstitutional.

The Biden administration appealed that ruling, but the case probably won’t be argued until late March. At that point, the Trump administration will be in place and it not obvious whether it will receive a different view of the issue.

The 5th Circuit held that the capital way is unconstitutional because Congress has given too much authority to the FCC and the agency in turn has ceded too much power to a private entity.

The last period the Supreme Court invoked what is known as the non-delegation doctrine to strike down a federal law was in 1935. But several conservative justices have suggested they are open to breathing recent life into the legal doctrine.

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