Free State Foundation President Randolph May released the following statement regarding the Sixth Circuit’s denial of a petition to rehear a panel’s January 2 decision overturning the FCC’s latest net neutrality regulations:
“The Sixth Circuit’s denial of a petition for a rehearing en banc of a panel’s January 2, 2025, decision overturning the Biden FCC’s imposition of a public utility-like regulatory regime on broadband providers under the rubric of so-called 'net neutrality' should not be surprising. After all, six different Sixth Circuit judges already had ruled that the FCC’s regulations were unlawful, or in the case of the earlier stay of the FCC’s order, likely unlawful. Indeed, not one judge requested a vote on the rehearing petition.
“What would be surprising now — and a fruitless waste of time and resources — would be if the pro-public utility regulation advocates continued to pursue further litigation. There is no evidence of demonstrable consumer harm or marketplace failure that would justify the type of public utility regime that the Biden FCC sought to impose on broadband providers. In any event, the appropriate place for establishing a proper (hopefully deregulatory) framework for broadband policy, if a new framework is needed, is Congress."
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