The legal case against Internet rules

As legal challenges loom for new net neutrality regulations, here are four legal arguments already being lobbed against them:

1. Not enough notice: Federal Communications Commissioners Ajit Pai and Michael O’Rielly argue that the public was not given enough notice about the plan to reclassify the Internet and other provisions that made their way into the order. The lack of notice, they argue, is a violation of the Administrative Procedure Act (APA). But the proposed rules last May did include a series of questions asking about reclassification. That, combined with the huge amount of public comment in favor of reclassification, gives FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler and other senior FCC officials confidence that they complied with the law.
2. Not enough justification: The APA also requires the commission to justify the decision made based on the facts on the ground. Commissioners Pai and O’Rielly said that record is lacking as well.
3. Abuse of forbearance: Commissioner O’Rielly argued the FCC is using the tool to rewrite communications law in a way that Congress did not intend when it approved the tool in 1996.
4. Mobile broadband restriction: For the first time, the FCC decided that net neutrality rules would cover mobile broadband, given its increasing chunk of the Internet market. But the wireless industry has been arguing for months that a section of the Communications Act specifically prevents mobile broadband from being classified as a telecommunications service, and thus a common carrier.