Supreme Court turns aside conservative challenge to $8 billion phone and internet subsidy program
Source: USA Today
June 27, 2025, 10:43 a.m. ET
WASHINGTON − The Supreme Court on June 27 upheld an $8 billion federal program that subsidizes high-speed internet and phone service for millions of Americans, rejecting a conservative argument that the program is funded by an unconstitutional tax. The case raised questions about how much Congress can “delegate” its legislative authority to a federal agency and whether the Supreme Court should tighten that standard.
Under a law Congress passed in 1996, telecommunications companies are charged a Universal Service Fund fee – passed on to customers − that boosts phone and internet service to households and hospitals in rural areas, to low-income families, and to public schools and libraries. A private administrator overseen by the Federal Communications Commission distributes the funding, collects the fees and estimates how much needs to be raised each quarter. The FCC must approve the estimate before it’s used to determine fees for each carrier.
The conservative group Consumers’ Research, a carrier and a group of consumers challenged this setup, which has been the law for nearly three decades, asserting it’s Congress, not the FCC – and certainly not a private entity − that must determine the fee level. "At its heart, this case is about taxation without representation," Trent McCotter, an attorney for the group, told the Supreme Court in March. “The amount of public revenue to raise is a quintessential legislative determination, not some minor detail to be filled in later.”
While appeals courts in Ohio and Georgia rejected those arguments, the Louisiana-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals declared the universal service fee unconstitutional.
Read more: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2025/06/27/supreme-court-decision-universal-service-fund/83332336007/
Link to ORDER (PDF) - https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/24pdf/24-354_0861.pdf
I was waiting for SOME news outlet to write this up because this impactful for many people (and the decision was the 2nd one released)! 5th Circuit is getting ass-kickage today.
= new reply since forum marked as read
The Court came into session ~10:05 am EDT and TRUMP v. CASA was the first out of the gate and an article was up by NBC News (while others were mulling about it in "Live Updates" versions) at ~10:13 am. I think the Kennedy v. Braidwood Management (HHS Taskforce for the ACA) may have been next (although there was a delay by news sites getting that one), then FCC v. Consumers' Research (the subsidies for internet), which seemed to get completely lost in a news cycle shuffle while the news orgs were still drowning themselves in the CASA case (and continue to do so right now).
