Corn-Revere Warns FCC About Broadband Reclassification

First Amendment attorney Robert Corn-Revere warns the Federal Communications Commission that reclassifying broadband as a Title II common carrier service would be an attempt "to change the level of First Amendment protection for a medium simply by changing its regulatory definition," which he says it has limited, if any, authority to do. He argues that the recent Citizens United decision on corporate political speech offers clues to the High Court's disinclination toward Constitutional gerrymandering.

In a paper being published by The Media Institute, Corn-Revere, a partner with Davis Wright Tremaine, likens the move to "Congress or the FCC [imposing] indecency regulations and other public interest obligations on cable operators simply by reclassifying them as broadcasters." He says that the Supreme Court has signaled its respect for the full first amendment rights of new media, most recently in the majority opinion in Citizens United. While he concedes that was a close and controversial decision as a matter of politics and policy, he says the First Amendment findings suggest the court would "limit any attempt to expand FCC jurisdiction over new media simply by manipulating regulatory classifications."