A federal appeals court has agreed to halt the reinstatement of net neutrality rules until August 5th, while the court considers whether more permanent action is justified.
It’s the latest setback in a long back and forth on net neutrality — the principle that internet service providers (ISPs) should not be able to block or throttle internet traffic in a discriminatory manner.
The current FCC, which has three Democratic and two Republican commissioners, voted in April to bring back net neutrality. The 3–2 vote was divided along party lines.
Broadband providers have since challenged the FCC’s action, which is potentially more vulnerable after the Supreme Court’s recent decision to strike down Chevron deference — a legal doctrine that instructed courts to defer to an agency’s expert decisions except in a very narrow range of circumstances.
Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Matt Schettenhelm said in a report prior to the court’s ruling that he doesn’t expect the FCC to prevail in court, in large part due to the demise of Chevron.
“The administration “ usually means the Executive Branch, the FCC, which in this case is trying to do a good thing. Net neutrality has long been supported by a majority of voters, and has been active on party lines: Democrat majority is trying to do the right thing for their constituents
In this case corporations affected sued to overturn and the court, the Judicial Branch, issued a stay of enforcement until the final ruling.
This is very much a problem of corporations having too much say, and one of the parties protecting corporations over citizens