Fishing Fee Fight at Supreme Court Backed by Big Government Foes

Conservatives who have spent decades asking the Supreme Court to rein in the US government’s regulation of businesses are now betting on a case involving fishermen challenging a $710 fee they’ve never had to pay.

The case could undercut the power of federal regulators on major issues including air pollution and securities fraud. It also exemplifies the way many of the high court’s biggest fights are born these days -- driven less by the practical aims of the litigants than by the ideological vision of the interest groups behind the suits.

Bill Bright, one of the fishermen challenging the rule, says it would burden his two-vessel business.

Photographer: Rachel Wisniewski/Bloomberg

The fight concerns a federal requirement that some herring ...