Court Denies FCC Request to Hold Network Neutrality Challenge In Abeyance

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the DC circuit denied the Federal Communications Commission's request to hold appeals of its network neutrality rules in abeyance until it acted on a petition to reconsider the rule. That will allow the challenge to the rules to proceed to trial, with the next step expected to be the setting of a brief schedule. While the court will not wait for the FCC to decide whether it was correct to provide the specialized services carve-out, it did refer the FCC's petition to dismiss the case to the three-judge panel scheduled to hear argument.