The U.S. Supreme Court on April 21 will consider whether the Federal Communications Commission’s power to levy large fines violates Verizon and AT&T’s constitutional right to a jury trial.
The cases of FCC v. AT&T and Verizon Communications v. FCC, which will be heard together, are about whether provisions in the federal Communications Act of 1934 allowing the FCC to use in-house adjudications to levy penalties are constitutional.
The dispute is the latest legal case to test whether the in-house enforcement system used by a federal agency violates the Seventh Amendment right to a jury trial in federal civil cases….