FCC faces a range of options, none particularly attractive
As my colleague Mitchell Lazarus concisely analyzed here, the D.C. Circuit has vacated the FCC’s 2008 determination that Comcast’s network management practices violated the 2005 Internet Policy Statement. The Court held that the FCC’s attempt to enforce these particular “net neutrality” policies was invalid for lack of jurisdiction.
Jurisdiction in this context means power or authority. An independent federal agency’s ability to take any action depends on the authority granted that agency by Congress. If Congress has authorized the agency to act, the agency may act; if Congress hasn’t authorized it, the agency may not act. Of course, things are seldom that cut and dried. Sometimes Congress authorizes the agency to regulate in a general area but doesn’t mention anything about another, related, area. (For example, prior to 1984 the Communications Act authorized the FCC to regulate broadcasting, but said nothing about regulating the cable TV industry.) The courts have agreed that, in such cases, the FCC may act in the not-specifically-mentioned area if such action is “reasonably ancillary” to the agency’s “statutorily mandated responsibilities”.
In the Comcast case, the FCC claimed its regulation of Comcast’s practices was “reasonably ancillary” to a number of the Act’s provisions. But the D.C. Circuit concluded that none of the provisions cited by the FCC imposed any “statutorily mandated responsibility” to which the FCC’s regulation of Comcast might be deemed “reasonably ancillary”. And without that essential nexus, the FCC lacked the power, or jurisdiction, to do what it had done. As a result, the Court’s ruling also signaled that the FCC may lack the power to impose network neutrality principles.
So where does the FCC go from here if it wants to promulgate net neutrality regulations? There appear to be four major options:
Appeal to the Supreme Court. In its Comcast arguments, the FCC relied on the Supreme Court’s 2005 Brand X decision. That case involved the Commission’s determination that cable modem Internet access service is an “information service” subject to regulation under Title I of the Act, rather than a “telecommunications service” subject to Title II. In its Brand X
opinion, the Supreme Court observed that the FCC “remains free to impose special regulatory duties on [cable Internet access providers] under its Title I ancillary jurisdiction.” In Comcast, the FCC argued to the D.C. Circuit that that Supreme Court language established that the FCC could claim ancillary jurisdiction derived from Title I.
But the D.C. Circuit felt that the Commission was reading too much into that quotation. In the Circuit’s view, just because the Supreme Court said that the FCC had jurisdiction to impose some kind of regulation on ISPs under Title I doesn’t mean that the agency had jurisdiction to impose this particular regulation (i.e., “reasonable” traffic management); rather, the Circuit held, each claim for ancillary jurisdiction must be analyzed on its own merits.
Given that, the FCC could try to convince the Supreme Court to provide a broad interpretation of its Brand X language, broad enough to support the Commission’s claim of authority to regulate ISP traffic management. This would not be an easy case for the FCC. As the D.C. Circuit’s Comcast decision makes clear, the Supreme Court itself has, in a number of decisions, treated the concept of ancillary jurisdiction as narrow. Like the Circuit, the Supreme Court has held that each new assertion of such authority must be evaluated on its own terms. So the prospects of a broad, result-changing opinion out of the Supreme Court are not good. Additionally, a trip to the Supreme Court would not be quick: it is unlikely that a decision would be released prior to June, 2011, even if the Supreme Court agreed to take the case (which it is not required to do – indeed, the Supreme Court routinely agrees to review only about 1% of the cases presented to it).
Go to Congress. Seemingly the most direct way to fix a lack of jurisdiction is to get Congress to eliminate that lack by enacting legislation specifically providing the Commission with the authority to do what it wants to do. While legislation is perhaps the most direct route, it is neither the quickest nor the surest. Bills designed to give the FCC such authority have been introduced over the last few years – but they have not progressed significantly. While it’s difficult (if not impossible) to pinpoint precisely why proposed legislation gets stalled, in this instance that may be attributable, at least in part, to a preference by Congressional Democrats to give the FCC a chance to take a first shot at crafting net neutrality regulations. Another factor possibly staying Congress’s hand: a desire to wait and see what the D.C. Circuit would do in the Comcast case. But now that the D.C. Circuit has ruled against the FCC’s assertion of ancillary authority in this area, those two factors have been eliminated.
While it may be possible to get legislation authorizing very narrow FCC regulation of Internet traffic management enacted before everyone’s attention turns to the November elections, that seems unlikely. Verizon has been calling for much broader legislation to re-write the Communications Act for the “Internet Age,” but that seems even less likely to occur before November, and Verizon’s proposal probably would not provide the FCC authority to adopt net neutrality rules. Indeed, it took years of work to get the last re-write of the Communications Act enacted in 1996.
Re-classify the Transport Component of Internet Access to be a Title II Telecommunications Service. The FCC has recognized for some time that their 2008 Comcast Order was in trouble (as anyone who attended the oral argument at the Circuit could have surmised). Perhaps because of that, some Commissioners have been floating a possible alternative approach: re-classify at least some aspects of Internet access (including, e.g., the transport component) as a Title II telecommunications service. Since Title II unquestionably contains “statutorily mandated responsibilities” (more so than Title I), so the thinking goes, the Commission would be better able to establish that its regulation is “reasonably ancillary” to such responsibilities, thus avoiding the jurisdictional problem identified in the Comcast decision.
But this “re-classification” approach has its own problems.
First, re-classification would require the reversal of multiple FCC decisions made between 2002 and 2006. Those decision classified cable modem, DSL, wireless broadband and broadband-over-powerline as “information services” rather than telecommunications services. To be sure, the FCC already has a pending “Open Internet” proceeding through which a record might be built in support of re-classification of Internet transport as a telecommunications service. But what would Net Neutrality advocates use to make the case that the Internet environment has changed so radically in the last couple of years: the growth of “edge” providers and third-party Internet applications? Another difficulty: the FCC’s reasoning back in 2002, upheld by the Supreme Court in Brand X, was that even accessing the world wide web required an integrated information service, not merely telecommunications transport.
Further complicating matters is Congress. Would a majority of Congress be happy with the FCC taking things into its own hands, when many in Congress probably believe that re-classification (at least re-classification that involves increasing regulation on the re-classified service providers) is the responsibility of Congress, not the FCC.
And, of course, re-classification would generate very strong resistance on all fronts from across many industry segments. Further lengthy court appeals would be certain.
Build a Stronger Case for Title I Ancillary Authority. In Comcast, the D.C. Circuit did not rule that it was impossible for the FCC to make the case for ancillary jurisdiction, just that the Commission had failed to do so here. The Court left open the alternative possibility that the FCC could assert jurisdiction over Internet traffic management if such regulation were in fact ancillary to the Commission’s responsibilities under Section 201 of the Communications Act (which requires that common carrier charges and practices must be just and reasonable).
The potential for such an alternative arises from the fact that the Circuit declined to consider one line of argument presented by the Commission in support of its claim of ancillary jurisdiction. In its brief, the Commission argued that it could regulate Comcast’s practices because discriminatory practices that impact VoIP traffic affect the prices and practices of traditional telephone common carriers. But the FCC had not included that as a basis for its regulation back in its 2008 Comcast Order that was on review – and the Circuit (as well as most other courts) refuses to consider justifications for an agency action which are made only at the appeal stage, and not in the original action on review. So the ultimate strength of that particular argument has not yet been tested in court.
Accordingly, the FCC could use the pending Open Internet proceeding to build a record establishing a nexus to Section 201 responsibilities. However, the FCC’s Section 201 theories seem pretty far-fetched, and it is hard to conceive of other theories that could be stronger. And while the Court also left open the possibility that the FCC could try to show a nexus to its responsibilities to protect broadcast TV stations under Title III of the Communications Act, it is unclear if and how the FCC would take on that task.
Statements released by Democratic FCC Commissioners and legislators suggest that they are determined to move forward and find a way to enact net neutrality regulations. Of the alternatives set out above, re-classification of Internet transport as a Title II service currently seems to have the most momentum, but the Obama administration may choose to push one of the other alternatives, or perhaps to work on multiple paths at the same time. Either way, we are sure to see the struggle over this issue continue.
