FCC Adopts Net Neutrality

In a 3-2 vote today, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) adopted net neutrality by reclassifying broadband access as a public utility.

This issue was last litigated in Comcast Corp. v. FCC, 600 F.3d 642 (2010) in which the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled that a previous version of net neutrality exceeded the FCC’s authority under the Communications Act of 1934.  This ruling did, however, state that the FCC would be in compliance with the Act if it were to reclassify broadband providers as public utilities.  The language of the current rule was presumably written in response to this determination.  

The official press release on the new rules is available here.  C-SPAN’s video of the vote is available here.