WASHINGTON D.C. —­­  Today, after two prior losses in court, the FCC finally convinced a court to bless its claims of vast authority over the Internet.

“The FCC’s victory merely begins the next stage in this decade-long melodrama,” said Berin Szóka, President of TechFreedom, which joined the lawsuit as an intervenor challenging the Order. “We and other Petitioners will ask the full D.C. Circuit to rehear the case en banc and press on to the Supreme Court if necessary. That legal process could take years. In the meantime, the FCC now has a blank  check to regulate the Internet however it sees fit. Do not believe their promises of forbearance. The FCC can change its mind about those for the same reason it won today: the blind deference given to agencies by courts. The court should not have applied that deference in this case for the reasons laid out in our brief. Unfortunately, the court simply did not understand our argument.”

“Next time, we will insist upon having time at oral argument to make sure our point is clear: the FCC must not be allowed to rewrite the Telecom Act to suit its whims. The only way to end this madness is a legislative solution that gives the FCC clear but narrow authority over the core of its rules — but stops the FCC’s other power grabs. Until that happens, it will be difficult to impossible for Congress and the FCC to do anything else around broadband — like opening up spectrum or allowing local and state governments to focus on facilitating the infrastructure investments that make broadband deployment easier.”

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We can be reached for comment at media@techfreedom.org. See more of our work on Title II, including:

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