The Supreme Court, which dealt a major blow to the power of federal agencies in June, agreed on Friday to consider another: whether Congress violates the Constitution by delegating broad discretion to them.
The so-called nondelegation doctrine has been largely dormant since 1935, when the Supreme Court struck down New Deal laws for granting too much leeway to agencies with insufficient guidance.
A decision reviving the doctrine would be the latest in a sustained series of attacks on what its critics call the administrative state.
The decision in June, for instance, overruled a foundational precedent requiring deference to agencies’ interpretations of federal laws and endangered countless regulations in areas like the environment, health care and consumer safety.
Along the same lines, other recent rulings rejected the Securities and Exchange Commission’s use of administrative tribunals to combat securities fraud and limited the Environmental Protection Agency’s ability to address carbon emissions.
Organizations:
Securities, Exchange
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