Supreme Court Won’t Hear Challenge to Discarded Net Neutrality Rules

The U.S. Supreme Court won’t review a federal appeals court decision upholding Obama-era net neutrality rules that the Republican-controlled Federal Communications Commission has scrapped.

The high court Nov. 5 denied petitions by telecom trade groups representing AT&T Inc., Verizon Communications Inc., and other broadband providers. The groups wanted the high court to review the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit’s 2016 decision to uphold the rules.

The trade groups had argued that the Democratic-controlled FCC lacked authority to create the rules, which banned internet service providers from blocking or slowing internet traffic. The FCC under GOP Chairman Ajit Pai largely eliminated those rules last December.

Tech companies, more than a dozen states, and public interest groups are challenging Pai’s move at the D.C. Circuit.

The court said that Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel A. Alito, Jr, and Neil M. Gorsuch would’ve granted the petitions, vacated the D.C. Circuit’s decision, and sent the cases back down to the lower court with instructions to dismiss them as moot.

The cases are American Cable Ass’n v. FCC, U.S., No. 17-500, petition for review denied 11/5/18; Berninger v. FCC, U.S., No. 17-498, petition for review denied 11/5/18; AT&T Inc. v. FCC, U.S., No. 17-499, petition for review denied 11/5/18; CTIA—Wireless Ass’n v. FCC, U.S., No. 17-501, petition for review denied 11/5/18; NCTA—Internet & Television Ass’n v. FCC, U.S., No. 17-502, petition for review denied 11/5/18; TechFreedom v. FCC, U.S., No. 17-503, petition for review denied 11/5/18; U.S. Telecom Ass’n v. FCC, U.S., No. 17-504, petition for review denied 11/5/18.