Biden’s Neutrality Supreme Court Ruling on His Way Out of the House

An appeals court has reversed the Federal Communications Commission’s recent net neutrality rules, which have given Internet providers a way to limit Internet access to customers and other services.

The ruling is the latest in a decade-long battle in Washington over the FCC’s ability to regulate the telecom industry. It’s also a sign of the diminishing power of law enforcement agencies that follows the 2024 Supreme Court decision, Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raymond. The case reversed the court’s previous ruling, known as Chevron deference, which gave corporations the freedom to interpret ambiguous laws.

In 2015, the FCC under the leadership of former President Barack Obama enacted rules that classify broadband Internet providers as telecommunications services and prohibit them from blocking and disrupting Internet users or giving priority to websites that pay for special services.

Under Donald Trump’s first administration in 2018, the FCC repealed net neutrality rules. Then in 2024, under the leadership of Joe Biden, the FCC voted to reinstate them.

A union of telecom companies also sued to block the rules, prompting a recent ruling by the US Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals.

A panel of three judges he wrote that for the first 15 years after Congress passed the Telecommunications Act of 1996 the FCC regulated the Internet with “minimum touch” and classified Internet service providers as “notifications,” which limited the agency’s ability to regulate them.

That changed in 2015 when the agency defined Internet service providers as telecommunications, a separate category under a 1996 law that allowed for stricter regulations.

In a previous series of cases challenging net neutrality laws, federal courts have upheld the FCC’s decision to designate Internet service providers as telecommunications services, citing the 1984 Supreme Court case Chevron USA Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc., which provided the main branch. agencies that have the power to interpret ambiguities in laws passed by Congress.

But now that the current Supreme Court has overturned the so-called Chevron deference, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that the FCC does not have the authority to decide how Internet service providers should be classified.

In response to the ruling, FCC chair Jessica Rosenworcel called on Congress to act.

“Users across the country have told us time and time again that they want an Internet that is fast, open and fair,” he said in a statement. “With this decision, it’s clear that Congress now needs to heed its call, hold up to the charge of net neutrality, and put internet policy into federal law.”