The Federal Communications Commission is trying to revive net neutrality regulations after they were struck down after a long, hard fight in 2017. Sneaky!
Net neutrality is the notion that the FCC can create laws to prevent internet service providers (ISPs) from prioritizing, slowing down or blocking content online. It was struck down during the Trump administration and when California tried to put it in place, it was struck down again.
Now FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel has initiated a new proposal that amounts to net neutrality. The proposal says that the FCC would be given “additional authority to safeguard national security, advance public safety, protect consumers, and facilitate broadband deployment.”
Nope! Don’t want any federal agency tasked with any of those things!
According to Reason.com, there is reason to believe this new FCC power grab won’t stand up to legal scrutiny thanks to a 2021 Supreme Court decision:
“In West Virginia v. EPA, the Court relied on the so-called major questions doctrine to make it more difficult for agencies to expand their power. Unless Congress has granted it explicit, clear-cut authority, the Court said, an agency cannot regulate a major economic or political issue.
This probably applies to net neutrality. Two Obama-era solicitor generals didn’t equivocate in a recent legal brief on the issue, saying such FCC rules ‘will not survive a Supreme Court encounter with the major questions doctrine.’”
Let’s hope!
