DOJ Sues California for Passing Net Neutrality Law that Treats All Traffic Equally

California Governor Jerry Brown, Wiki
The US Department of Justice will sue the state of California to invalidate its new net-neutrality law that forces Internet providers like AT&T, Comcast, and Verizon to treat all web traffic equally – which means that big users like YouTube and Netflix, who use most of the total Internet bandwidth, pay no more than anyone else – even if they want to do so to avoid traffic jams for their subscribers. California lawmakers wrote their law after the FCC scrapped nationwide regulations last year, citing the regulatory burdens they caused for the telecom industry. Federal Attorney General Jeff Sessions pointed out that states do not have the right to regulate interstate commerce. [There are strong arguments on both sides of this issue, but everyone knows that theoretical arguments are not always the same as actual practice. Whenever governments take control over an industry, as they do under net neutrality, it is not long before corruption overrides theory.  If one wants to know if net neutrality will be good or bad for consumers and especially for freedom of speech, just look at the strongest advocates. Why do you think that Google, YouTube, Governor Jerry Brown, and the legislature of California are so fond of net neutrality?] –GEG

Barely an hour after California Gov. Jerry Brown signed what’s widely believed to be the toughest net neutrality law ever enacted in the US, the US DOJ announced that it would sue California to invalidate the new law, setting up yet another showdown between the federal government and the largest state in the union.

According to the Washington Post, California has become the largest state to adopt its own rules requiring Internet providers like AT&T, Comcast and Verizon to treat all web traffic equally. State lawmakers wrote their law after the FCC scrapped nationwide protections last year, citing the regulatory burdens they had caused for the telecom industry. The lawsuit opens yet another legal showdown between Brown and Attorney General Jeff Sessions. Recently, a federal judge threw out most of the DOJ’s challenge to California’s sanctuary state laws.

The law will pit massive ISPs like Comcast and Verizon against smaller Internet companies like Etsy and streaming services like Vimeo.

As the DOJ explains in its press release, federal laws explicitly state that the Internet should not be regulated as if it were a utility. However, this assumption undergirds the argument for enforcing net neutrality by law. For years, net neutrality was merely a principle to which ISPs adhered. It wasn’t until the Obama Administration-era FCC imposed certain restrictions on ISPs that net neutrality were enshrined into law.

And as Sessions pointed out in a statement, states do not have the right to regulate interstate commerce.

Under the Constitution, states do not regulate interstate commerce – the federal government does. The Justice Department should not have to spend valuable time and resources to file this suit today, but we have a duty to defend the prerogatives of the federal government and protect our Constitutional order,” Sessions said in a statement.

[…]

“Not only is California’s Internet regulation law illegal, it also hurts consumers,” Pai said in a statement. “The law prohibits many free-data plans, which allow consumers to stream video, music, and the like exempt from any data limits. They have proven enormously popular in the marketplace, especially among lower-income Americans. But notwithstanding the consumer benefits, this state law bans them.”

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, who received death threats last year after the FCC undid the Obama-era regulations, said in a statement that the California law isn’t just illegal, but also hurts consumers.

“I’m pleased the Department of Justice has filed this suit.  The Internet is inherently an interstate information service.  As such, only the federal government can set policy in this area.  And the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit recently reaffirmed that state regulation of information services is preempted by federal law.”

“Not only is California’s Internet regulation law illegal, it also hurts consumers.  The law prohibits many free-data plans, which allow consumers to stream video, music, and the like exempt from any data limits.  They have proven enormously popular in the marketplace, especially among lower-income Americans.  But notwithstanding the consumer benefits, this state law bans them.”

And with other states stepping up to pass net neutrality laws of their own, the DOJ has every incentive to take this lawsuit all the way to the Supreme Court (where hopefully, assuming Brett Kavanaugh is confirmed, the court’s conservative majority will rule in the DOJ’s favor).

In this case, the future of Internet regulation is at stake in a political war that’s pit telecom providers such as Verizon against tech companies, especially smaller ones such as the crafts site Etsy and the streaming service Vimeo. With other states considering net neutrality laws of their own, the DOJ “may want to try to take [California] to the Supreme Court if it goes that far,” said Carl Tobias, a law professor at the University of Richmond.

Read full article here…

 

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