Supreme Court to hear arguments on agency authority over violations [View all]
Source: Roll Call
Posted April 20, 2026 at 10:05am
The Supreme Court is set to hear oral arguments Tuesday in a case that could shrink Congress’ power to let agencies internally decide legal and regulatory violations, as two telecommunications giants challenge the Federal Communications Commission’s power to impose forfeitures. AT&T and Verizon have contested determinations by the FCC that they violated consumer privacy rules and owed $57 million and $47 million, respectively. They argued that the FCC process, which Congress created in 1960, violated the constitutional right to a jury trial.
The parties in the case and legal experts said a decision in favor of the companies could wipe out the processes dozens of agencies use to adjudicate legal violations. Daniel Lyons, a nonresident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and law professor at Boston College, said the case, combined with other recent Supreme Court rulings restricting federal agencies, could result in a shift from internal agency judges to more time-consuming, costly cases in federal courts.
“In the short run, the policy impacts of this will be really significant. Agencies will wind up doing a lot less than we as a society expected them to do over the last 20-30 years,” Lyons said. Under current law, the FCC issues determinations about potential violations of law and regulations. Companies can either challenge those findings at a federal appeals court or seek a jury trial by waiting until the Justice Department files a lawsuit to collect the funds.
Congress first gave the FCC forfeiture authority in 1960 against the broadcasters and telecommunications companies the agency supervises, according to court documents. In 2024 the FCC issued forfeiture notices for alleged violations of data privacy rules to AT&T, Verizon and others for incidents where third parties could gain access to users’ location data from aggregator companies who had contracts with the carriers. The companies then challenged the notices in federal appeals courts, rather than waiting for a DOJ suit to collect the money.
Read more: https://rollcall.com/2026/04/20/supreme-court-to-hear-arguments-on-agency-authority-over-violations/
Link to FILING (PDF) - https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/25/25-406/396609/20260218142818402_25-406%20and%2025-567%20Brief.pdf
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