There’s probably not a communications or administrative lawyer or scholar alive today who is not familiar with the decades-old “net neutrality” saga. Well, due to the Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit’s decision in Ohio Telecom Association v. FCC on January 2, the saga, mercifully, may be coming to an end. With no need for more […]
“America’s Court” (as I call it) strikes again: Welcome back to Sixth Circuit Reviewed! This month, no published administrative law cases from the Court. But don’t fret. Fireworks this round came by way of a motions panel, which stayed the Federal Communication Commission’s net neutrality rules. Quick (overly simplified) background: The Communications Act of 1934 […]
With the Senate’s confirmation of Anna Gomez as the fifth member of the Federal Communications Commission, the Democrats finally have their long-awaited 3-2 majority. So FCC Chairman Jessica Rosenworcel didn’t waste any time in initiating a rulemaking proceeding proposing to reimpose “Net Neutrality” regulations on Internet service providers (ISPs) such as Verizon, Comcast, and dozens of others. […]
As I noted yesterday, ACUS’s newly adopted Recommendation 2021-1, Managing Mass, Computer-Generated, and Falsely Attributed Comments generated three separate statements. Separate statements are permitted by the Administrative Conference Act (5 U.S.C. 595(a)(1)) and the agency’s bylaws (Section 302.6(d)(1)). They are relatively rare and typically used to register disagreement with a recommendation the Assembly has voted to […]
Pursuant to the Constitution’s Article VI Supremacy Clause, federal laws and regulations preempt conflicting state laws. But may state laws be preempted when they clash with a federal policy of nonregulation? The answer to that question may well determine whether the Federal Communications Commission’s 2018 Restoring Internet Freedom Order (RIF Order) preempts state net neutrality […]
I wanted to follow up on Aaron Nielson’s great post about the D.C. Circuit’s long-awaited net neutrality opinion with a couple of related thoughts. (I saw, as I was writing this post, that Professor Daniel Lyons also has a post up on the Volokh Conspiracy touching on similar points.) For one, it’s interesting how Judge […]
Everyone, it seems, is waiting for the D.C. Circuit’s “net neutrality” decision. The case was argued last December and so could be decided anytime.* But it wasn’t decided this week. Although the D.C. Circuit’s only opinion this week did involve the FCC, and while it was authored by Judge Tatel, it wasn’t the big one […]
On June 24, Ofcom, the independent regulator and competition authority for the United Kingdom communications industries, issued a consultation paper on traffic management and net neutrality. An Ofcom statement reported that the purpose of the consultation paper is to open up a discussion on how existing and future powers “might be used to address traffic […]
When the Supreme Court overturned the Chevron doctrine in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, it purported to leave intact the holdings of cases decided under Chevron. Chief Justice Roberts wrote that “we do not call into question prior cases that relied on the Chevron framework. The holdings of these cases that specific agency actions are lawful—including […]
Welcome back to Sixth Circuit Review. It’s been a while. Your humble host has been on extended parental leave. But “America’s Court” marches on. Time to recap. First things first. What we won’t go over extensively here: net neutrality. Yes, the Sixth Circuit issued an opinion on that issue, but these pages have already covered […]
In a recent post in this space, “The (Likely) End of the FCC’s Long-Running Net Neutrality Saga,” I explained why the Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit’s decision in Ohio Telecom Association v. FCC on January 2 likely signals the end of the FCC’s lengthy history of imposing, abandoning, and reimposing “net neutrality” mandates on Internet service providers, […]
Big Tech claims a broad First Amendment right to censor user speech. FCC Commissioners Carr and Simington explain why that’s wrong.
*This is the seventh post in a symposium on William Araiza’s Rebuilding Expertise: Creating Effective and Trustworthy Regulation in an Age of Doubt. All posts from this symposium can be found here. Bill Araiza’s stellar new book Rebuilding Expertise offers a thoughtful program for reform of contemporary administrative law. With his trademark clear prose and fair-minded analysis, Araiza offers […]
In West Virginia v. EPA, the Supreme Court held that the emission limits adopted by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in the Clean Power Plan exceeded the agency’s authority, because the Clean Air Act did not clearly authorize the agency to “restructure the American energy market.” Ordinarily, courts would review the interpretive issue under the […]
I confess that I haven’t closely followed Arizona v. City and County of San Francisco — argued today in the Supreme Court. After reviewing the transcript from the oral argument, however, it turns out that the case may raise pretty significant questions about remedies in administrative law. The question presented is “[w]hether States with interests […]