Thanks to Chris Walker for inviting me to join the conversation about last week’s net neutrality decision. Previous posts by Aaron Nielson and Daniel Deacon did an excellent job highlighting one of the decision’s major themes, the dialogue between the majority and the partial dissent regarding the proper amount of scrutiny to apply to arbitrary […]
My son is away at camp this week, and that’s probably for the best. It means he has missed the last two NBA Finals games. One of his least favorite players is LeBron James, and LeBron—by any measure—has had a pretty amazing week. At the same time, my son is a huge fan of Shaun […]
Yesterday, the D.C. Circuit announced its decision in United States Telecom Association v. FCC, i.e., the Net Neutrality case.* The co-authored majority opinion (Judges Tatel and Srinivasan) upheld the FCC’s new scheme over Judge Williams’ partial dissent. Reviewing the competing opinions, I was struck by something: the asymmetrical treatment of economists. First, let’s review the […]
There is a lot of terrific administrative law and regulation programming at the AALS Annual Meeting in New York City this week, so I thought I’d highlight the various panels and programs that may be of interest to scholars of administrative law and regulation (defined broadly). In addition to the official AALS programming, I’ve included […]
Daniel Deacon’s recent post and his essay in the Administrative Law Review raise several interesting – and potentially concerning, which is not to say wrong – points. Importantly, even though the vagaries of publication mean that his essay focuses on the FCC’s use of Section 706 to implement its Open Internet rules, whereas the FCC […]
As Chris Walker noted recently on Twitter, the latest issue of the Administrative Law Review was kind to Notice and Comment bloggers. My own contribution has to do with a new basis for the FCC’s jurisdiction over Internet Protocol-based networks and services. And that basis is not Title II of the Communications Act, which has […]
In non-net neutrality telecom news, last week saw the announcement that Comcast has ended its $45 billion bid for Time Warner Cable. The announcement came after government officials met with Comcast executives and expressed their opposition to the merger. For their part, FCC staff members were reportedly prepared to refer the merger to an FCC […]
Now that the FCC’s Open Internet/Title II Reclassification Order has finally arrived (along with the inevitable lawsuits), I thought I would do a brief addendum to my prior post on the various legal challenges confronting the FCC’s plan. (For Gus Hurwitz’s response to that post, and my reply, see here and here.) One thing my prior […]
Daniel Deacon’s recent Notice & Comment post does a nice job of laying out the legal basis that will likely be used by FCC Chairman Wheeler’s proposed Open Internet (a/k/a net neutrality) rules. And his analysis of this legal basis reflects conventional wisdom. He is right that it is reasonably likely that the courts will […]
It’s an exciting time for communications law. Later this month, the FCC is expected to reclassify broadband ISPs like Comcast and Verizon as “telecommunications carriers” subject to the requirements contained in Title II of the federal Communications Act. This action follows on the heels of President Obama’s November plea for reclassification. Supporters of the FCC’s […]
Last month Professor Tribe filed comments with the EPA and wrote in the Wall Street Journal to argue that the EPA’s new Clean Power Plan rules are unconstitutional. I would like to expand upon and generalize his concerns. The basic issue – that the agency is asserting newfound and broad regulatory power based on general […]
Meet Nina Mendelson, the Joseph L. Sax Collegiate Professor of Law at the University of Michigan Law School. Below, Prof. Mendelson discusses her diverse experiences with administrative law, and shares her thoughts about challenges facing both attorneys and agencies. 1. What led you to a career in law? How did you become interested in studying […]