Supreme Court Will Hear Universal Service Case on March 26

The U.S. Supreme Court has scheduled oral arguments in the case of FCC v. Consumers’ Research—a case regarding the Universal Service Fund—for Wednesday morning, March 26. The court will decide on a 2024 ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit that the Commission’s current universal service fund (USF) is unconstitutional. The Fifth Circuit’s decision conflicts with decisions by the Sixth and 11^th Circuits. The key question in the case, according to a Supreme Court summary, is “whether Congress violated the nondelegation doctrine by authorizing the Commission to determine … the amount that providers must contribute to the fund.” In the weeks since the Supreme Court agreed to hear the Universal Service Fund case on November 22, interested parties have been filing friend-of-the court briefs. “There is no violation of the private nondelegation doctrine where the private entity functions subordinate to an agency, and the agency has authority and surveillance over the entity,” according to a joint brief by NTCA – The Rural Broadband Association, USTelecom, and the Competitive Carriers Association.