Appeals court kills FCC net neutrality rule

What happened

The U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals dealt a decisive blow to net neutrality Thursday, ruling that the Federal Communications Commission lacked the authority to regulate internet providers like a public utility. The FCC first required broadband providers to treat all legal internet traffic equally — the goal of net neutrality — in the Obama administration.

Donald Trump's Republican-led FCC overturned the rules in 2017, but with President Joe Biden's encouragement, a Democrat-majority FCC voted to reinstate net neutrality last April.

Who said what

The Supreme Court's ruling last June that federal agencies no longer get deference in interpreting regulations "means we can end the FCC's vacillations," Judge Richard Griffin wrote for the three-judge appellate panel. FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel said consumers "have told us again and again that they want an internet that is fast, open and fair," and Congress should "heed their call" and "put open internet principles in federal law." FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr, Trump's nominee to lead the agency, said he was "pleased" by the court's invalidation of Biden's "internet power grab," and more deregulation was coming.

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What next?

Open-internet advocates could "seek review by the Supreme Court," Reuters said. But that's probably a dead end, former FCC official Marc Martin told The Washington Post. Attention-grabbing "future bad acts" by internet providers could "maybe bring a different Congress to act and give the FCC authority. Short of that, I think it's over."