WASHINGTON, Aug. 26, 2024 — Federal regulators now have a court date to try to breathe new life into their ailing internet competition rules. It’s Halloween.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit in Cincinnati announced Monday that it will hold oral arguments in the net neutrality case on October 31, 2024, at 8:30 a.m. ET.
The arguments are Live stream, but audio only, According to the Clerk of the Sixth District Court Kelly StephensThe court has not announced the names of the judges who will hear the case on the merits.
On April 25, the FCC voted along party lines to classify broadband ISPs as public network operators. The ISPs immediately appealed after the rules were published in the Federal Register on May 22.
The FCC claimed broad authority over ISPs on a number of issues, including prohibiting them from blocking or throttling legal Internet content or accepting payments for prioritizing traffic. ISPs were particularly concerned about the FCC’s general conduct rules, which they viewed as a means of regulating rates and restricting various pricing mechanisms.
FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel said the rules were necessary to “ensure that broadband services are treated as an essential resource worthy of FCC oversight.”
On August 1, a panel of the Sixth Circuit unanimously stayed the rules, saying the ISPs were “likely to succeed on substantive grounds.”
The three-judge panel – including two judges appointed by Democratic presidents, including one by President Joe Biden – said it was also likely that the FCC had violated the Supreme Court’s Major Questions Doctrine.
According to this legal canon, the FCC is prohibited from resolving issues of major political and economic importance without express authorization from Congress. The ISPs have argued that Congress never gave the FCC the authority to treat them as public network operators.
“The Communications Act probably does not clearly authorize the (FCC) to resolve this signaling question. Nowhere does Congress clearly grant the (FCC) the authority to classify broadband providers as public transit carriers,” the Sixth Circuit panel said.
Rosenworcel, who has repeatedly predicted a victory in court based on previous decisions, called the delay “a setback, but we will not give up the fight for net neutrality.”
