Court Upholds FCC's Net Neutrality Rules [telecom]

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By John Eggerton, B&C, 6/14/2016

In a big victory for the FCC, the Obama Administration and FCC chairman Tom Wheeler, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia has let stand the FCC's new Open Internet order.

That includes the definition of internet service providers as common carriers under Title II of the Communications Act; the application of the rules to mobile broadband providers; and the finding that the FCC's order was neither unconstitutional nor violated procedural safeguards.

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This decision is far from final. Opponents will almost certainly appeal to the D.C. Circuit for en banc rehearing, and failing that, to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Although the decision of the three-judge panel was unanimous, one judge -- Senior Judge Stephen Williams -- issued a partial dissent. Opponents will surely use that dissent as ammunition for a rehearing.

Neal McLain