Definition
The non-delegation doctrine holds that the legislative power vested in Congress by Article I belongs to Congress and cannot be handed off wholesale to the executive branch or to administrative agencies. The Constitution assigns lawmaking to a representative, bicameral legislature, and that assignment would be hollow if Congress could simply transfer the job to officials who are not accountable in the same way.
The doctrine does not bar all delegation. Congress routinely directs agencies to fill in details and apply broad policies to specific facts. The constitutional test, articulated in cases such as J.W. Hampton v. United States in 1928, asks whether Congress has supplied an intelligible principle to guide the delegated authority.
Why it matters
How it works
In practice, courts uphold a delegation if the enabling statute contains an intelligible principle, a standard that lower courts have found satisfied even by broad language such as a directive to regulate in the public interest. The doctrine functions less as a frequent ground for striking laws down and more as a background constraint and an interpretive tool, encouraging courts to read statutes narrowly to avoid raising delegation concerns.