Verizon Tries To Jump The Legal Line In Challenging FCC's Weak Net Neutrality Rules

from the speed-up-the-process dept

There was a noticeable split when the FCC announced its vague and totally watered down net neutrality rules last month. The rules were prepared in close conjunction with AT&T. And while they're pretty similar to what Verizon and Google had proposed, the fact that Verizon didn't get to work on it so closely with the FCC left it with hurt feelings. The scuttlebutt was that the FCC was pretty pissed off about the Google/Verizon announcement which derailed some other negotiations the FCC was already involved in.

In response, even though these rules are completely watered down and really have plenty of loopholes and clauses favorable to the telcos, Verizon, more or less on principle, has decided to fight them, just to make sure that the FCC can't implement stricter rules later (which seems pretty unlikely anyway). However, it also tried to jump the legal line. Rather than filing a lawsuit in a district court, it went straight to the Appeals Court of the DC circuit, leapfrogging the standard district court and appeals process. Apparently, it's using a rather unique legal interpretation to claim that it can do this, though others are pointing out if this is accurate, then basically all cases involving FCC regulations would be forced into that single court, killing off the idea of having different circuits examine issues.
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Filed Under: lawsuits, net neutrality
Companies: fcc, verizon


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  1. identicon
    Jose_X, 21 Jan 2011 @ 5:02am

    Hope Verizon gets their changes

    ..if that means I can get mine as well.

    We should all be able to get our changes in place. We are all having our rights restricted.

    On the other hand, if I can't get authority to broadcast over the air as I see fit and stick fiber through public areas and into private dwellings, then I think Verizon needs to have their rights restricted as well.

    They aren't a more important (cough) person than me just because they have more money.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  2. icon
    The eejit (profile), 21 Jan 2011 @ 5:45am

    Re: Hope Verizon gets their changes

    OF course they are! Just look at how much legal corruptionlobbying the telcos do!

    link to this | view in thread ]

  3. icon
    milrtime83 (profile), 21 Jan 2011 @ 6:27am

    They were going to fight any rules that were put in place just to shift what the perceived "center ground" is.

    It seems like a situation where I say you should get paid $10 and you think you should get $100. The compromise would be somewhere around $55. I can only go as low as $0 because I can't make you pay me for you doing the work, but you can go as high as you want. If you say you should get $1000, the middle is around $500 and if you settle for $200 it looks like a compromise but is still way above the $55 you should have gotten.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  4. icon
    Hephaestus (profile), 21 Jan 2011 @ 7:59am

    "Rather than filing a lawsuit in a district court, it went straight to the Appeals Court of the DC circuit, leapfrogging the standard district court and appeals process. "

    If this doesn't get bounced, Verizon just opened up the flood gates to people challenging every law they don't like or that seems unconstitutional. It could in effect change things.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  5. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 21 Jan 2011 @ 10:05am

    your gonna be CANADA'D TOO

    25 gb caps on that 100megabit for you

    link to this | view in thread ]


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