DC Circuit Upholds Much of Title I FCC Order; Dissenter Disagrees on Pre-emption
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit upheld much of the FCC reclassifying broadband service as a Title I Communications Act information service, with some exceptions including on pre-emption for states' own regulations. The ruling also included a partial dissent from Judge Stephen Williams and concurring opinions from Patricia Millett and Robert Wilkins. Our earlier bulletin incorrectly described the FCC's newest rules as on Title II.
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Williams' dissent focused on the pre-emption issue. "The majority conspicuously never offers an explanation of how a state regulation could ever conflict with the federal white space to which its reasoning consigns broadband," he wrote. The ruling is in Pacer.
"Today’s D.C. Circuit decision is a big victory for consumers! The court affirmed the @FCC’s decision to repeal 1930s utility-style regulation of the Internet," tweeted FCC Chairman Ajit Pai. "A free and open Internet is what we have today. A free and open Internet is what we’ll continue to have going forward."
Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel had a different take. "The court sends back to the @FCC much of the mess it made with #NetNeutrality," she tweeted. "The @FCC was on the wrong side of the American people and the wrong side of history. Let's keep up the fight."