July 8, 2025, 2:25pm
Amongst all of the terrible and regressive decisions and shadow docket orders the Supreme Court spewed forth this term, there was a rare, small win for libraries and schools.
The story got a little buried, but the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 to uphold the Universal Service Fund, a bundle of FCC-overseen subsidies including the E-Rate program, which provides billions for broadband access to schools and libraries. The Fund was challenged by conservatives as an unconstitutional overreach by giving control of the fund to the FCC, but the Court ruled that Congress was within its bounds. It seems obvious that Congress should be allowed to assign control of programs to agencies, but these days, who knows. I’m just glad to see that SCOTUS is letting the government improve peoples’ lives and granting power to something other than the Executive.
E-Rate has been very successful since it was implemented in 1996. Over half of all American public libraries apply for this subsidy every year, and over 100,000 schools had participated by 2005. The discounts for broadband can be as high as 90%, so the fact that it’s survived is a big win, especially for underserved communities.
Pro-library groups like the American Library Association are celebrating the decision. The ALA has long advocated for the program, and its President Cindy Hohl described E-Rate as “a lifeline for public libraries and millions of Americans, especially in rural and underserved communities.”
Around 20% of American households don’t have broadband internet at home, so the access that libraries provide is essential, especially as so much of work, social, and civic life has moved online, for better and for worse.
It’s a rare win for libraries, especially from this ultra-conservative Supreme court. I wonder if the lack of a culture war angle to this case kept it from being a target for the Court’s majority. It’s a small comfort, but I’m glad that allowing schools and libraries to maintain a high level of service for their communities fits into the Court’s vision for America.
