Supreme Court Deals Blow to Net Neutrality Rule Fans

The Biden Administration's loss in a Supreme Court ruling involving the Environmental Protection Agency's ability to regulate power plants could be a victory for internet service providers (ISPs)' arguments that the Federal Communications Commission was outside its regulatory lane when it reclassified internet access as a Title II common carrier service subject to open access and other requirements and imposed new neutrality rules. In the 6-3 opinion handed down June 30, Chief Justice John Roberts, who penned the decision, said that in the Clean Air Act, Congress had not granted the EPA the authority to devise emissions caps based on the electricity-generation shifting approach the EPA took in the Clean Power Plan. In that opinion, Roberts talked about the limits of the Chevron doctrine, which is the courts' customary deference to agency expertise when a statute's direction is less than crystal clear. ISPs have long argued that Congress did not give the FCC the authority it asserted in reclassifying internet access under Title II.