The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit, in a unanimous opinion, ruled that neither Congress nor the FCC had violated the nondelegation doctrine with respect to raising contributions from telecommunications service providers via the Universal Service Fund. Consumers’ Research and other petitioners asked the 5th Circuit to review the FCC’s USF contribution factor arguing that Congress’s standardless delegation to the Commission and the FCC’s delegation of authority to the Universal Service Administrative Company to raise and spend nearly unlimited money via USF violates the U.S. Constitution. Specifically, the court noted that Congress can confer substantial discretion on executive agencies to implement and enforce laws.
