FCC Defends Brand X Application in 6th Circuit Net Neutrality Case
The U.S. Supreme Court's 2005 Brand X decision "remains binding" on the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals "under established principles of stare decisis as to all issues the Supreme Court decided in that case," the FCC said in a…
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supplemental brief Friday (docket 24-7000). The court temporarily stayed the FCC's net neutrality order until Aug. 5 (see 2407120052). Brand X held that the Communications Act "gives the FCC authority to classify and regulate broadband service," the agency said. The FCC said the court "remains bound by Brand X" regardless of whether petitioners disagree with the ruling. "Insofar as petitioners now seek to forever freeze in time the former Title I approach, they are not asking the court to respect the Brand X decision under principles of stare decisis, but instead to countermand it," the FCC said. CTIA, USTelecom, NCTA, ACA Connects, the Wireless ISP Association and several state telecom associations said in a joint supplemental brief that Brand X's holding "now dooms the commission's rule." They said that the court "may not accept the commission's new, contrary conclusion that broadband is solely" a telecom service. "Even if Brand Xdid not require this court to reject the commission's argument as a matter of statutory stare decisis , it still supports petitioners' arguments that the best reading of the 1996 Act is that broadband is an information service," the coalition said.