Appeals Court Strikes Down Net Neutrality Rules
CINCINNATI — A federal appeals court on Thursday struck down net neutrality rules promulgated by the Federal Communications Commission, saying the agency lacked the authority to reinstate them.
In rendering its decision, a three-judge panel of the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said it relied heavily on Loper Bright, the Supreme Court decision last June that voided the long-standing Chevron deference.
That precedent, which had stood for nearly 40 years, mandated that courts give deference to government agencies’ interpretation of regulations that others argued were vague.
“Applying Loper Bright means we can end the FCC’s vacillations,” the panel said.
Though net neutrality has been a subject of debate since at least the Clinton administration, it became a hot button issue in 2015 after the Obama administration instituted new rules intended to regulate internet service providers as if they were utilities.
The goal was to ensure that companies like Comcast, Charter Communications and Verizon would not be able to speed up or slow down internet speeds to favor some users over others.
Those rules, which had drawn strong support from consumer groups and large technology firms like Google, were largely repealed during the first Trump administration only to be restored, just this past April, by President Joe Biden’s FCC.
As the above implies, the issue is at the center of a true partisan divide.
Where supporters of net neutrality, largely on the left, believe such regulations help foster freedom of speech and democratic participation while promoting competition and innovation, opponents, mainly on the right, insist the rules do the exact opposite.
Instead of fostering innovation, they argue, net neutrality rules reduce investment, deter competition and impose unnecessary regulations on an entire industry sector.
“Consumers across the country have told us again and again that they want an internet that is fast, open and fair,” FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel said in a written statement issued after the ruling.
“With this decision, it is clear that Congress now needs to heed their call, take up the charge for net neutrality and put open internet principles in federal law,” she said.
Meanwhile Republican Commissioner Brendan Carr, who is expected to take over as chair later this month as the commission switches to a GOP majority, cheered Thursday’s ruling as “a good win for the country” that invalidated a pillar of the current administration’s “internet power grab.”
“Rather than focusing on a broadband agenda that would bridge the digital divide, the Biden administration chose to waste time and resources imposing these unnecessary command and control regulations,” Carr said.
“Republicans and Democrats alike warned the FCC not to head back down the quixotic path of Title II regulation. I also called — repeatedly — for the FCC not to go this route,” he continued.
Carr also said that the court ruling is only the beginning, and vowed “the work” of unwinding Biden administration policies in the area of next-generation connectivity will continue.
“I welcome the chance to advance a policy agenda that will deliver great results for the American people,” he said.
Dan can be reached at [email protected] and @DanMcCue
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