6 years ago
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Could California Effectively Restore Net Neutrality for the Entire Country?
The internet providers that cheered on the Federal Communications Commission’s killing of net neutrality in December may yet regret getting the thing they wished for. In the absence of federal open-internet protections, states across the country are starting to pass their own laws—a coast-spanning patchwork of regulations that companies like AT&T and Comcast may find harder to comply with than the now-axed Obama-era policy, which prevented broadband companies from slowing down or blocking access to websites.
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https://slate.com
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The US Government, The FCC, and friends are going to argue the Supremacy clause, under such that Federal rules must regulate interstate commerce. Since the FCC said in their repeal that states can't have their own rules that would, in theory, kill this law. They will probably get through the California courts and probably the 9th circuit but once it reaches the Supreme Court who knows.
Most likely Congress will codify the repeal with a cable company/NCTA prepared bill killing the US internet as you've known it. Once a law and not just an FCC mandate are installed California will have no legs to stand on.
I find the title biased. California is not the only state seeking to pass such legislation, nor that has taken some other form of action To be fair, the reportage covers the efforts by some other states too (although not as comprehensively as I would have liked). The article itself was interesting, but overall it does not give me the strongest of confidence in the Slate. 22 states are suing the FCC for the net neutrality repeal, a fact that is not mentioned in the article.