End of the Net Neut Fetish?

[Commentary] Hooray. We live in a nation of laws and elected leaders, not a nation of unelected leaders making up rules for the rest of us as they go along, whether in response to besieging lobbyists or the latest bandwagon circling the block hauled by Washington's permanent "public interest" community.

This was the reassuring message yesterday from the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals aimed at the Federal Communications Commission. Bottom line: The FCC can abandon its ideological pursuit of the "net neutrality" bogeyman, and get on with making the world safe for the iPad. The court ruled in considerable detail that there's no statutory basis for the FCC's ambition to annex the Internet, which has grown and thrived under nobody's control. Alas, like all federal agencies that pretend to be brave when they aren't, there's a reason the FCC beats up on Comcast—because it's easier than taking on the entrenched political interests (i.e., members of Congress) who never tire of having a foot on the neck of broadcasters and publishers back home in order to extort favorable coverage. This week was not the first time—or the second time, or third time—that the courts have rebuked the FCC for inventing authority over the Internet out of its hookah. Maybe now the agency will get the message and turn its attention to the regulatory morasses it actually has jurisdiction over.