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From the Wall Street Journal: A federal appeals court Thursday dealt a fatal blow to the Federal Communications Commission’s decade-plus effort to gain stronger oversight over the internet.
The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals said that the FCC lacked the authority to oversee wireless and home-broadband services under the same set of rules that long governed telephone service.
The decision cited the Supreme Court’s overturning of a precedent known as the Chevron deference this summer. That ruling pared back U.S. agencies’ leeway to interpret federal law when the statutory language is ambiguous.
Outgoing FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel, a Democrat, said Thursday that consumers still want “fast, open, and fair” internet service and called on Congress to protect those principles in federal law, an acknowledgment that the FCC’s own effort hit a dead end.
The WSJ explained that, during the Trump administration, the FCC had voted to repeal the Obama-era rules in 2017, kicking off another round of court challenges that were eventually defeated.
Republican FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr, who will step into the role of FCC Chair once Trump is inaugurated, released a statement praising the court’s decision on Thursday.
“An appellate court just struck down President Biden’s partisan plan to expand government control of the Internet through Title II “net neutrality” rules, citing Loper Bright. While the work to unwind the Biden Admin’s regulatory overreach will continue, this is a good win,” Carr wrote.
“President Biden’s entire plan rested on the Chicken Little tactic of persuading Americans that the Internet would break in the absence of these so-called ‘net neutrality’ regulations. The American people have now seen through that ruse,” Carr declared in his statement.
My full statement:https://t.co/H2d8GX1Eze pic.twitter.com/cg62aQkVzM
— Brendan Carr (@BrendanCarrFCC) January 2, 2025
Breaking: Net-neutrality rules were dealt a final blow by a federal court, ending the FCC’s effort to regulate internet providers like utilities https://t.co/TKoSkYjsjG
— The Wall Street Journal (@WSJ) January 2, 2025
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