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By Lawrence Hurley
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The US Supreme Court on Monday rejected the Trump administration's request for the telecommunications sector to rescind a decision of a lower court that upheld the rules of network neutrality. of the Obama era aimed at guaranteeing a free and open Internet, although the judges' action does not cancel the policy's repeal in 2017.
The High Court's decision not to overturn the 2016 decision of the Columbia District Court in the United States leaves a legal precedent in place that could help proponents of network neutrality in any future battle if this policy was reintroduced.
President Donald Trump, a Republican, has opposed the rules championed by former Democratic President Barack Obama and intended to ensure equal access to content on the Internet.
The Trump administration and the telecommunications sector had wanted to wipe out the 2016 decision even as the Federal Republican-led Communication Commission voted in December to repeal the Net Neutrality rules. The reversal of the policy came into effect in June.
In its brief order, the Supreme Court indicated that three of the Conservative court judges – Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch – would have rejected the decision of the court of appeal. Neither Chief Justice John Roberts nor Trump's new member, Brett Kavanaugh, participated in the decision.
USTelecom, one of the groups that challenged the 2015 rules on internet neutrality, said the action of the High Court was "not surprising". USTelecom said it would "continue to support" the repeal "of challenges in Washington and in state capitals."
FCC commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel, a Democrat who backed the Net Neutrality Order in 2015, said on Twitter that the commission had "asked the Supreme Court to erase the story. and to overturn an earlier ruling upholding open internet policies.Today, the Supreme Court refused to do that. "
The Justice Department has also filed a lawsuit to prevent California's Net Neutrality Law from coming into force in January. The state agreed in October to delay the implementation of the law pending the call for the reversal of the neutrality of the Internet.
The FCC voted 3-2 in December, in the sense of a partisan opposition, to the rules adopted by Obama that banned Internet service providers from blocking or suppressing traffic or offering services. paid fast lanes, also called paid priorities.
The new rules, which give Internet service providers greater power to regulate the content that customers access, are now the subject of a separate legal battle after being challenged by many pro-consumer groups. neutrality of the internet.
The repeal of internet neutrality has been winning for providers such as Comcast Corp, AT & T Inc. and Verizon Communications Inc. Internet companies such as Facebook Inc., Amazon.com Inc. and Alphabet Inc. objected to this repeal, believing that the repeal could result in higher costs.
(Report by Lawrence Hurley, Additional Report by David Shepardson, Edited by Will Dunham)
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