US appeals court will not reconsider California net neutrality ruling

The 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals will not reconsider its decision in January to uphold California's net neutrality law. California's 2018 law barred internet service providers from blocking or throttling traffic, or offering paid fast lanes, but it only took effect in 2021. The court in January said since the Federal Communications Commission reclassified internet services in 2017 as more lightly regulated information services, the commission "no longer has the authority to regulate in the same manner that it had when these services were classified as telecommunications services." “This is hardly a surprise,” said Andrew Schwartzman, senior counselor to the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society, and an attorney schooled in appeals court decisions and net neutrality cases. “The 9th Circuit’s unanimous panel opinion affirming the lower court’s decision allowing the new law to go into effect followed established principles. Its finding that federal law does not preclude California from adopting its own network-neutrality rules is rock solid.” Telecom groups could now ask the US Supreme Court to hear the case. Schwartzman said it was "notable that not a single judge on the nation’s largest court of appeals even asked for a vote on the industry’s rehearing petition."