A federal appeals court ruled this week the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) lacked the authority to restore certain net neutrality rules last year, handing a blow to FCC Democrats and Biden administration officials who pushed for revived open internet measures.
The Thursday ruling by the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals overturns last year’s FCC vote, which reinstated the net neutrality rules barring broadband providers from blocking or throttling internet traffic to some websites and speeding up access to others that pay extra fees.
The three-judge panel pointed to a Supreme Court decision last June that scaled back executive agencies’ power by overturning Chevron deference, the legal doctrine that previously instructed judges to defer to agencies in cases where the law is ambiguous.
In upending the decision, judges are now expected to substitute their own best interpretation of the law instead of deferring to the agencies.
Judge Richard Allen Griffin, writing for himself and Judge John K. Bush, wrote broadband must be considered an “information service,” not a “telecommunications service” as the FCC said in its order last year.
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