The US Supreme Court will weigh a fresh line of attack on federal administrative power, agreeing to consider the constitutionality of the $8 billion annual slate of subsidies that help cover the cost of telecom services for poor people and rural residents.

The Supreme Court on Friday stepped into a major legal fight over the $8 billion a year the federal government spends to subsidize phone and internet services in schools, libraries and rural areas, in a new test of federal regulatory power.

The Supreme Court on Friday said it will consider the constitutionality of the Federal Communications Commission's Universal Service Fund, agreeing to review a lower court decision that upended the mechanism for funding programs that provide communications services to rural areas,