The US Supreme Court has handed the Trump administration a significant win in a closely watched battle over federal regulatory power, backing the Federal Communications Commission's authority to enforce privacy rules against telecom giants including AT&T and Verizon.
The ruling preserves one of the FCC's most aggressive enforcement tools at a moment when conservative legal campaigns have increasingly succeeded in weakening the reach of federal agencies. Over the past two years, the Supreme Court's conservative majority has repeatedly cut back regulatory authority across Washington. On Thursday, however, the Court drew a line.
