WASHINGTON, D.C. – The U.S. Supreme Court recently announced it will consider the constitutionality of the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) Universal Service Fund (USF), agreeing to review a decision by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals finding it unconstitutional under the nondelegation doctrine. Boyden Gray PLLC and Texas Public Policy Foundation are representing the challengers.
Congress originally authorized the FCC to raise money for the USF, supposedly to expand telephone service. But Congress never set any limits on how much the FCC can collect, handing a blank check to an agency full of bureaucrats. Then the FCC redelegated this taxing power to a private entity full of self-interested telecom insiders, in effect allowing an unelected corporation to set the tax rates paid by millions of Americans.
Boyden Gray PLLC Partner Trent McCotter, who is counsel of record, said, “We look forward to presenting this important case to the Supreme Court, and we hope the Court affirms the thorough and well-reasoned decision signed by nine circuit judges in the court below.”
“Anyone who has watched Schoolhouse Rock knows that Congress, not unelected bureaucrats, are supposed to write our laws,” added TPPF Director of Litigation Chance Weldon. “We’re excited that the Supreme Court is taking up this case to restore that constitutional order.”
To read more about the case, click here.
Texas Public Policy Foundation is a non-profit free-market research institute based in Austin that aims to foster human flourishing by protecting and promoting liberty, opportunity, and personal responsibility. The Center for the American Future defends the Constitution through legal opposition to government overreach. The Center launches legal challenges at the administrative, district, and appellate court levels on behalf of ordinary people whose lives, liberty, and property are threatened by government action in defiance of the Constitution.
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