Last year, the D.C. Circuit issued its opinion in Mozilla v. Federal Communications Commission in which the court largely upheld the Commission’s 2017 Restoring Internet Freedom Order that reversed the Obama Administration’s 2015 decision to apply common carrier regulation to the Internet. While the court upheld the bulk of the agency’s actions as reasonable under the Supreme Court’s rulings in Chevron and Brand X, the court also found that the agency lacked plenary preemption authority over state efforts to regulate the Internet under the FCC’s theory of the case. Furthermore, if the next administration reverses the order, unless the Supreme Court were to curtail the Chevron doctrine, the D.C. Circuit would likely once again affirm the agency’s policy reversal. So, where do we go from here?
In this virtual panel, legal and policy experts share their views of the court’s opinion, agency deference, and what is next in the net neutrality debate and in the courts.
Panelists:
Randolph J. May, President, The Free State Foundation
Roslyn Layton, Visiting Fellow, American Enterprise Institute
Nathan Leamer, Vice President, Targeted Victory
Moderator:
Ashley Baker, Director of Public Policy, The Committee for Justice