On September 13, 2024, WLF filed an amicus brief urging the Supreme Court to review and ultimately overturn a Second Circuit decision in an important preemption case affecting the internet. WLF joined TechFreedom in urging the high court to clarify that Congress excluded broadband from rate regulation and other forms of common-carrier regulation by the States. In its brief urging review, WLF contends that Congress, in the Telecommunications Act of 1996, declared that the internet should remain “unfettered” by state regulation. That law provides that a company offering interstate communications services may be regulated as a common carrier only to the extent that it “provides telecommunications services.” Yet the FCC has already determined that broadband service is not a telecommunications service, but an “information service.” The States, therefore, may not regulate a broadband service as a common carrier. Under the Second Circuit’s reasoning, however, States could impose market entry or exit requirements, rate regulations, and many other onerous regulations on email, text messaging, and much more. That would be a disaster for the internet, for technological progress, and for society.
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