DC Circuit Upholds Much of Title I FCC Order; Dissenter Disagrees on Pre-emption

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit upheld much of the FCC reclassifying broadband service as a Title I Communications Act information service, with some exceptions including on pre-emption for states' own regulations. The ruling also included a partial dissent from Judge Stephen Williams and concurring opinions from Patricia Millett and Robert Wilkins. Our earlier bulletin incorrectly described the FCC's newest rules as on Title II.

Williams' dissent focused on the pre-emption issue. "The majority conspicuously never offers an explanation of how a state regulation could ever conflict with the federal white space to which its reasoning consigns broadband," he wrote. The ruling is in Pacer.

"Today’s D.C. Circuit decision is a big victory for consumers! The court affirmed the @FCC’s decision to repeal 1930s utility-style regulation of the Internet," tweeted FCC Chairman Ajit Pai. "A free and open Internet is what we have today. A free and open Internet is what we’ll continue to have going forward."

Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel had a different take. "The court sends back to the @FCC much of the mess it made with #NetNeutrality," she tweeted. "The @FCC was on the wrong side of the American people and the wrong side of history. Let's keep up the fight."