6th Circuit Rejects FCC's Latest Net Neutrality Order
The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday overturned the FCC’s latest net neutrality order, reclassifying broadband as a Title II service under the Communications Act. A three-judge panel handed down the decision two months after hearing oral argument (see 2410310041).
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The court held that broadband ISPs “offer only an ‘information service’” and “therefore, the FCC lacks the statutory authority to impose its desired net-neutrality policies through the ‘telecommunications service’ provision of the Communications Act.
“For almost 20 years after Congress enacted the Telecommunications Act, the FCC’s position was that companies providing access to the Internet offered information -- not telecommunications -- services, and thus, Title II’s common-carrier regulations did not apply,” the court found: “This order -- issued during the Biden administration -- undoes the order issued during the first Trump administration, which undid the order issued during the Obama administration, which undid orders issued during the Bush and Clinton administrations.”
The court also found that mobile broadband "does not qualify as 'commercial mobile service'" and cannot be regulated as a common carrier service.
The panel was made up of Judges Richard Griffin and Raymond Kethledge, who are appointees of President George W. Bush, and John Bush, one of six 6th Circuit judges that President Donald Trump appointed. Griffin wrote the decision.