roving commission

British  

noun

1. authority or power given in a general area, without precisely defined terms of reference

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Example Sentences

“The judiciary doesn’t sit as a roving commission to rule on the legality of either Congress’s enactments or the executive’s implementation of those enactments,” U.S. solicitor general Elizabeth B. Prelogar pointed out.

From Washington Post

Prosecutors shouldn’t have a roving commission to comb through all the outrages of the Trump administration in search of a fact pattern that fits the criminal code, and that’s a risk.

From Washington Post

“There’s a line that it certainly looks like they’ve crossed. And, if I may, it’s an important line because it’s the difference between federal law enforcement and a roving commission where you’re using these law enforcement officers to go out and restore what they deem to be order,” said Stephen I. Vladeck, a law professor at the University of Texas at Austin.

From Washington Post

“What you have to understand is, we were not in effect a roving commission to explore everything, the insides and outs, what took place here.”

From Washington Times

"This really is a roving commission," Theodore Boutrous, Apple's lawyer, argued Tuesday.

From Reuters