The Heritage Foundation issued a statement following the Supreme Court’s decision in Federal Communications Commission v. Consumers’ Research. The ruling, decided by a 6-3 vote, allows Congress to delegate its taxing power to an executive branch agency.
Jack Fitzhenry, a legal fellow at the Edwin Meese III Center for Legal and Judicial Studies within The Heritage Foundation, commented on the decision. He stated: “Today, the Court approves the FCC’s ability to exercise Congress’s taxing power and allows the decades-long misadventure of rampant delegation to continue. The Court has missed too many opportunities to correct its case law in this area, and the result has been too much willingness in Congress to give away legislative power to the executive branch.”
Fitzhenry further expressed hope for future cases that might address this issue but emphasized that Congress already has the tools necessary to resolve it independently of judicial intervention: “Though we can hope for another case and another opportunity, Congress possesses the means—if not the will—to fix the problem now without the courts.”