By Tony Romm
California may soon begin enforcing its first-in-the-nation net neutrality law after a federal judge on Tuesday ruled against broadband providers that had sought to scuttle the open-internet safeguards.
The ruling amounts to a major victory for advocates of rules that require AT&T, Comcast, Verizon and other telecom giants to treat all web traffic equally, potentially setting the stage for states nationwide to follow California's lead and try to adopt tough new protections of their own.
California enacted its open-internet law in September 2018, months after the U.S. government under then-President Donald Trump eliminated national net neutrality protections. Golden State lawmakers said at the time they had no choice but to adopt their own rules to prevent Internet providers from blocking or slowing down web traffic, or charging for faster delivery of some content or services.
But California's net neutrality protections met immediate legal blowback: The Trump-era Department of Justice sued to block it mere hours after it became law. AT&T, Comcast, Verizon and other telecom giants, acting through their major lobbying groups, soon filed a lawsuit of their own. The carriers argued that the federal government specifically had preempted the states from adopting their own rules governing net neutrality, which they said rendered California's law "a classic example of unconstitutional state regulation."
The case remained in legal limbo for years, until the 2020 presidential election, which saw net neutrality-supporting Democrats led by President Biden take control of the White House and Congress. In one of the new administration's first actions, the Justice Department earlier this month announced it would withdraw its lawsuit, injecting new hope into open-Internet advocates' cause. On Tuesday, a judge in California's eastern district sided with the state in a ruling that net neutrality supporters saw as a major win.
"This is a huge victory for net neutrality, and bodes well for other states that have adopted net neutrality requirements," said Andrew Jay Schwartzman, the senior counselor to the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society, which had filed an amicus brief in support of California's rules.
The four trade groups that had filed the lawsuit - the American Cable Association, CTIA, the National Cable and Telecommunications Association and USTelecom - said Tuesday they "will review the court's opinion before deciding on next steps," signaling a potential appeal on the horizon.
"A state-by-state approach to Internet regulation will confuse consumers and deter innovation, just as the importance of broadband for all has never been more apparent," they said in a joint statement. "We agree with the Court that a piecemeal approach is untenable and that Congress should codify rules for an open Internet."
The California attorney general's office also did not respond immediately to a request. Jessica Rosenworcel, the new acting Democratic chairwoman of the FCC, hailed the decision in a tweet.
The Washington Post