Judging the open Internet

The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals moved closer to deciding the fate of the open Internet. The court chose three judges by random: Clinton appointees Judith Rogers and David Tatel and Reagan appointee Laurence Silberman. Oral arguments in the case are scheduled for September 9.

In this case, Verizon is claiming that the FCC has no legal power to enforce the net neutrality rules which have now been in place for more than a year. One of the judges, David Tatel, was the author of the DC Circuit’s 2010 Comcast/BitTorrent decision, which rejected the FCC’s legal justification in that case for asserting authority over broadband. However, it’s unclear how the Verizon case might go.

According to attorney Andy Schwartzman of the Media Access Project, the judges “are likely to follow a recent Supreme Court decision in City of Arlington v. FCC, which held that courts should defer to regulatory agencies when the law is ambiguous.”

Schwartzman, who favors net neutrality, told The Hill “All three of them [the judges] are of a mindset that is likely to give deference to the government. I could compose a number of panels that would be much less favorable to the commission.”

Judges named for net neutrality case (The Hill, Jun. 25, 2013)