Oral Arguments on FCC's New Title II Order Set for End of October

According to news reports, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit has scheduled October 31, 2024, as the date for oral arguments on the merits in the pending legal challenge to the FCC's Safeguarding and Securing the Open Internet Order. It is reported that live-streaming audio of the arguments will be available to the public. 

The Commission's order changed the classification of broadband Internet access services from a lightly regulated "information service" under Title I of the Communications Act to a more heavily regulated common carrier "telecommunications service" under Title II. Lawsuits challenging the new Title II order have been consolidated before the Sixth Circuit. 

 

In an August 23 Perspectives from FSF Scholars, "The Sixth Circuit Stays the FCC’s Latest Net Neutrality Flip-Flop," Free State Foundation President Randolph May reviewed the court's per curiam order released August 1. That court order stays the Commission's order, pending a decision by the merits panel assigned to the case. FSF President May briefly analyzes the major questions doctrine (MQD) rationale for the court's stay order and Chief Judge Jeffrey Sutton's concurring opinion that addresses the best reading of the Communications Act. Both issues can be expected to receive more extensive judicial analysis by the Sixth Circuit's merits panel. 

 

For more on the new Title II Order and the MQD, see my April 2024 Perspectives from FSF Scholars, "The FCC's Internet Regulation Plan Fails the Major Questions Doctrine."