WASHINGTON, D. C. – Attorney General Karl A. Racine has joined a coalition of 22 attorneys general in filing a multistate lawsuit to block the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) illegal rollback of net neutrality. The coalition filed a petition for review in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, commencing the lawsuit against the FCC and the federal government.
“District residents depend on fair and open Internet access as one of their primary platforms for equal access to information, commerce, education and jobs,” said Attorney General Racine. “Net neutrality has been an engine of economic innovation, supporting the District’s burgeoning tech startup industry as well as businesses across the country. We believe the FCC’s decision to roll back protections for net neutrality was both unlawful and unwise, and we’re asking the Court to block that decision to ensure that large corporations can’t pick winners and losers on the Internet.”
The repeal of net neutrality could have dire consequences for consumers and businesses in the District and across the country that rely on a free and open Internet. The repeal would allow Internet service providers (ISPs) to block certain content, charge consumers more to access certain sites, and throttle or slow the quality of content from content providers that don’t pay the ISPs more.
Under the Administrative Procedure Act, the FCC cannot make “arbitrary and capricious” changes to existing policies, such as net neutrality. The FCC’s new rule fails to justify the FCC’s departure from its long-standing policy and practice of defending net neutrality, while misinterpreting and disregarding critical record evidence on industry practices and harm to consumers and businesses. Moreover, the rule wrongly reclassifies broadband Internet as a Title I information service, rather than a Title II telecommunications service, based on an erroneous and unreasonable interpretation of the Telecommunications Act. Finally, the rule improperly and unlawfully includes sweeping preemption of state and local laws.
Click here to read the petition. The lawsuit was led by New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman. In addition to Attorney General Racine, the suit was joined by the attorneys general of New York, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Mississippi, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, and Washington state.