President Trump withdraws renomination of FCC Commissioner Michael O’Rielly

The White House withdrew the nomination of Federal Communications Commissioner Mike O'Rielly to serve another term, a surprising development that came after his nomination was approved by the Senate Commerce Committee in July. The announcement came less than a week after Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Jim Inhofe (R-OK) said he would block O'Rielly's nomination over the five-member FCC's unanimous decision to allow Ligado Networks to deploy a low-power nationwide mobile broadband network.

The withdrawal also came after President Donald Trump in May demanded the Commerce Department petition the FCC to consider new regulations on social media moderation practices. Commissioner O’Rielly has expressed some skepticism about whether the FCC has authority to issue new regulations covering social media companies. Commissioner O'Rielly made comments in late July that drew attention of some White House and industry officials. He said, "the First Amendment protects us from limits on speech imposed by the government - not private actors - and we should all reject demands, in the name of the First Amendment, for private actors to curate or publish speech in a certain way." He added that "like it or not, the First Amendment’s protections apply to corporate entities, especially when they engage in editorial decision making. It is time to stop allowing purveyors of First Amendment gibberish to claim they support more speech, when their actions make clear that they would actually curtail it through government action."