Groups alert Supreme Court to ripple effect of handcuffing Congress

By Pamela King | 01/17/2025 04:41 PM EST

The justices could soon revive a long-dormant doctrine that stops legislators from handing too much power to agencies like EPA.

The U.S. Supreme Court building is seen.

The Supreme Court is seen in Washington on Feb. 2, 2024. Francis Chung/POLITICO

Amid a legal fight over federal funding for telecommunications access, advocacy groups are battling it out over whether the Supreme Court should use the case to further cut back the regulatory powers of EPA and other executive agencies.

The groups made their arguments to the justices in “friend of the court” briefs docketed this week in Federal Communications Commission v. Consumers’ Research, which directly focuses on the FCC’s power to raise funds to protect telecommunications access in rural and low-income areas.

The justices could also use the fight to bring back the nondelegation doctrine, a legal theory last used in 1935 that prevents Congress from shifting too much power to the executive branch. If the Supreme Court chooses that path, it would mark the latest in a string of decisions that take aim at the authority of federal regulators to address pressing issues like climate change.

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Reviving the nondelegation doctrine would threaten congressional schemes far beyond the telecommunications realm, said the advocacy group Public Citizen in its amicus brief docketed Wednesday.

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