NCTA, ACA, USTelecom look to check FCC's Title II authority in Supreme Court [telecom]

Sep 29, 2017 1 Replies

NCTA, ACA, USTelecom look to check FCC's Title II authority in Supreme Court [telecom]



By Daniel Frankel, FierceCable, September 29, 2017



Telecom trade groups including the NCTA, ACA and USTelecom have asked the U.S. Supreme Court to hear their appeal of a lower-court ruling upholding the FCC's declaration of ISPs as common carrier service providers.



Despite the stated intentions of the now-Republican- controlled FCC to roll back its 2015 Title II decree and associated net-neutrality regimen, the trade groups are trying to overturn a D.C. Circuit Court ruling that the FCC had the authority to classify internet service providers as Title II public utilities in the first place.



In its petition filed yesterday, NCTA-The Internet Television Association accused the FCC of crafting its 2015 Title II decree and corresponding net-neutrality rules based on the vastly outdated standards of the communications Act of 1934.



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Neal McLain.


NCTA "accused the FCC of crafting its ... rules based on" the precise statute that gives it (or may not, as the courts will determine) authority to make such rules in the first place? In what way does that count as an "accusation"? If the FCC had not based its rules on the Communications Act, it would definitely have exceeded its authority.

If NCTA thinks that the legal standards defined by the FCC's enabling legislation are "vastly outdated", the appropriate recourse is to Congress, not the courts.

-GAWollman

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