A potentially explosive administrative law case landed at the U.S. Supreme Court this week with the Biden administration's appeal of a decision that struck down as unconstitutional aspects of a Federal Communications Commission funding program designed to improve internet and phone services in underserved areas.

The U.S. Department of Justice has filed a petition asking the justices to review the conservative U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit's ruling that the Univeral Service Fund is subsidized by a "misbegotten tax" imposed by the FCC and a private fund administrator on Americans' phone and internet use.