Proponents of clipping federal agencies’ power may not get all they want with new Supreme Court cases that center on reviving a long-dormant legal doctrine.
On Friday, the justices agreed to hear Federal Communications Commission v. Consumers’ Research, as well as SHLB Coalition v. Consumers’ Research. Both challenge efforts to apply the nondelegation doctrine, which states that Congress cannot hand off policymaking decisions to federal agencies, like EPA.
Nondelegation has garnered interest from right-leaning organizations skeptical of broad agency power. But legal experts said the court’s decision to review the two cases does not mean the court will address the doctrine.
That’s because the high court’s decision to include a question of whether the challenge is even ripe for debate “suggests that at least some of the justices believe this case could be resolved without getting into the underlying merits,” said Jonathan Adler, a law professor at Case Western Reserve University.
