The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit in Cincinnati ruled that the FCC did not have legal authority to reinstate net neutrality rules
A federal appeals court ruling last week overturned an April 2024 Federal Communications Commission vote to restore certain net neutrality rules that would reclassify broadband providers as common carriers subject to the same regulations as public utilities.
First approved in 2015 under former President Barack Obama, the net neutrality rules established broadband internet as an essential service, and therefore, protected from paid prioritization by classifying Internet Service Providers (ISPs) as Title II common carriers under the Telecommunications Act. The reclassification barred ISPs from blocking or controlling customers’ internet access or experience based on how much they are paying.
These regulations were repealed during the Trump administration in 201, but reinstated in April 2024 under President Biden and the leadership of Democratic FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel.
The basis for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit in Cincinnati’s recent decision, it appears, is Judge Richard Allen Griffin’s and Judge John K. Bush’s interpretation that “broadband” must be considered an “information service,” and not a “telecommunications service” as the FCC claimed last year. As such, it is not a common or public utility — or so goes the logic.
Rosenworcel issued a statement in response, urging Congress to take action. “Consumers across the country have told us again and again that they want an internet that is fast, open, and fair,” she wrote. “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.”
Moving forward, the FCC is a GOP majority, with Republican Commissioner Brendan Carr likely at the helm. Carr last year voted against restoring the rules, arguing that the those in support of the rules were “offer[ing] up a laundry list of bogus justification” for wanting to include broadband service under Title II of the Communications Act.
