Multi-state efforts to reverse last month’s FCC decision to repeal net neutrality have been formalized today with a court filing.
Led by New York’s Attorney General, Eric Schneiderman, the lawsuit includes 22 states. Schneiderman made announcements about the lawsuit via Twitter and elsewhere.
“An open internet — and the free exchange of ideas it allows — is critical to our democratic process,” Schneiderman said in a statement announcing the suit. “The repeal of net neutrality would turn internet service providers into gatekeepers – allowing them to put profits over consumers while controlling what we see, what we do, and what we say online.”
As noted by The Verge, this is the first major attempt to reverse the FCC’s decision (outside of a Senate CRA). Specifically, the court filing will ask the DC circuit court if the repeal was an abuse of discretion and more.
The lawsuit, brought in front of the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit, asks the court to determine that the FCC’s repeal is “arbitrary, capricious, and an abuse of discretion” under the law. The suit will also argue that the FCC wrongly reclassified broadband as a so-called Title I information service — rather than a Title II service — because of “an erroneous and unreasonable interpretation” of communications law. Public interests groups announced simultaneously that they had also filed petitions.
Last week, Senator Markey achieved his goal of gaining 30 co-sponsors for his Congressional Review Act, which will force the Senate to vote on repealing the repeal. However, even though the Senate may overturn the decision, the vote is expected to fail if it makes it to the House and also wouldn’t be supported by President Trump.
For Scheiderman’s part, he is asking for public support by calling local representatives and officials, along with sharing his tweet/video.
https://twitter.com/AGSchneiderman/status/953364049219043328
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