On August 19, 2024, the NAM filed an amicus brief asking the 6th Circuit to vacate the FCC’s net neutrality rule—prohibiting internet service providers from blocking or throttling lawful content. In this case, the FCC restored the Obama-era rule that the Trump administration had repealed, citing its negative impact on innovation. In restoring the net neutrality rule, the FCC claimed authority to regulate internet service providers as common carriers under Title II of the Communications Act of 1934.
Broadband service providers and trade groups subsequently petitioned for review of the rule in various federal circuit courts, arguing that it exceeds the FCC’s authority, and those cases were consolidated in the 6th Circuit. We argue in our amicus brief that the rule violates the major questions doctrine because it is a major rule, and Congress has not clearly authorized the FCC to reclassify broadband as a common carrier service. Further, regulating broadband in that manner will discourage investment and technological advances in broadband in a manner that undermines American business’s ability to compete in a global economy.