To everything there is a season. A time to propose Open Internet rules. A time to seek relief from these arbitrary and capricious rules in the courts, specifically the DC Court of Appeals.
Let’s say it’s not a complete surprise that a carrier, Verizon in this instance, has decided to challenge the FCC’s recent rules on the Open Internet.
Yesterday Verizon filed an appeal to the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia challenging the FCC’s Report and Order on the Open Internet, aka NET NEUTRALITY. There’s a lot of punditry questioning the why of this action. After all, it did appear that Verizon, AT&T, et. al. got just about everything they wanted.
What they didn’t get in the original Voozle suggestion, though, was a “light” regulatory role for the FCC over open Internet access— i.e., no rulemaking power at all.
When you have lots of lawyers on the pay roll, you put them to use. It’s been said some of these carriers are really law firms with a cable plant thing they have on the side.
Verizon’s action does nothing to change that viewpoint. CommLaw Blog (see reference) lays out the legal sleight-of-hand V. is using to file its appeal directly with the DC Court instead of leaving it to the federal judiciary’s own assignment system. Essentially, they argue that FCC Open Internet rules are really about wireless licensing, which can only be appealed in that court—it’s actually specified in the Communication Act’s section 402.
More boldly, and as if to rub sulfuric acid in the FCC’s wounds, Verizon is requesting that the same panel of judges (Sentelle, Tatel, and Randolph) that ruled against the FCC in the Comcast case, precipitating the whole net neutrality discussion and the FCC’s rules, should now hear the appeal.
Verizon’s ultimate gambit is to eviscerate the FCC’s open internet rulemaking authority it claims under section 706.
To accomplish this, Verizon is throwing itself at the mercy of the DC Court.
Touching. I can only hope they’ll get a fair hearing.
Related articles
- Net Neutrality: Verizon Looks For A Home Court Advantage (commlawblog.com)
- Verizon fires legal shot against Net neutrality rules (news.cnet.com)
- Snowed In with the FCC’s Open Internet Rules (technoverseblog.com)
- Meet our New Regulators: Verizon and Google (technoverseblog.com)
