The Supreme Court is set to hear arguments in a pair of cases Wednesday over how much power Congress can give to executive agencies without running afoul of the Constitution, which could end up shaping how legislation is written.
The arguments center on whether Congress handed over too much power to the Federal Communications Commission when it created the Universal Service Fund. The fund collects money from telecommunications companies and distributes funds intended for telecommunications services nationwide.
Several experts said the cases come as a majority of the members of the conservative-controlled Supreme Court have expressed interest in imposing new limits on what’s called the “nondelegation doctrine” — or how much legislative power Congress can cede to other entities. Depending on how the justices handle the complicated case, experts said, it could have wide-ranging impacts on federal agencies.
