A majority of the Supreme Court appeared reluctant Wednesday to wipe out a Federal Communications Commission program, voicing skepticism about arguments that Congress had ceded too much of its power to the agency.
In the two cases argued Wednesday, the justices questioned how they could deal with a lower-court decision that found the $9 billion Universal Service Fund violated the Constitution by running afoul of what’s called the “nondelegation clause” — a limit on how much power Congress can give up.
The cases are the first in years where the justices have pondered the nondelegation doctrine, and a ruling could require Congress to be more specific in its legislating or limit its ability to give agencies’ power at all, experts said.
