Consumers’ Research Takes Hard Line Headed Into SCOTUS Argument
Consumers’ Research, the conservative group that is a self-described opponent of “woke” culture, told the U.S. Supreme Court that the way the FCC assesses payments for the USF is “a historic anomaly at odds with 600 years of Anglo-American practice.” SCOTUS will hear FCC v. Consumers' Research March 26, challenging the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals’ 9-7 en banc decision invalidating part of the USF program (see 2501090045), in part because the FCC delegated authority for overseeing the program to the Universal Service Administrative Co.
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It would be hard to find a “worse example of delegation than an agency allowed to raise revenue under penalty of law, bound only by its own ‘aspirations,’ and with broad power to redefine the program on an ‘evolving’ basis,” Consumers’ Research said in a brief filed this week with the court.
The group compared the FCC’s oversight of the USF to allowing the IRS “unbounded” authority to raise revenue to pay for government operations. “The result would be a bureaucrat’s dream,” the brief said: “Industry ‘experts’ would decide how to fund the federal government, with no more fights over appropriations or political heat for income taxes. But it would be a nightmare for the Constitution, the separation of powers, and the liberty they protect.”
Even worse, the FCC gives USAC authority to determine the level of support needed each quarter, the brief argued. “The FCC does not even have mechanisms to substantively review USAC’s figures,” Consumers’ Research said. “Letting private proposals become binding without formal, independent approval by government officials is the very definition of an unconstitutional private delegation.”
Based on the information on the group’s website, Consumers’ Research was founded in 1929 “with the mission to educate and protect consumers from harmful products.” In 1981, it was sold to conservative commentator Stanton Evans, former chairman of the American Conservative Union and an editor at National Review and Human Events. The group received more than $8.1 million in contributions and grants last year but, like similar groups, doesn’t report on donors.
The group also targets corporate “environmental, social, governance” programs. “Political activists use ESG as a way to drive a progressive agenda and ideological allies in the business community help push this agenda through economic coercion and ignoring democratic processes,” Consumers’ Research says.