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 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 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,