President Obama championed cheap, fast, city-run Internet. His administration won’t.

Regulators may have to wage an uphill legal battle if they want to use federal powers to nurture small, city-run broadband projects. The Justice Department said that it won't be helping the Federal Communications Commission fight a couple of key lawsuits on municipal broadband, in a possible indication of trouble ahead for the FCC. The government's lawyers said they wouldn't be taking a position on the cases, which target a controversial decision by the FCC to strike down state limits on public Internet service in two states, Tennessee and North Carolina.

It's not unheard of for the Justice Department to bow out of a case involving a federal agency. But its decision this time is unusual, many policy analysts say. The Obama Administration has vocally supported city-run Internet initiatives, and urged the FCC to take action on the matter. And the Justice Department is already supporting the FCC in another high-profile lawsuit on Internet policy involving network neutrality. "We don't know for sure, but my best guess is that the DOJ, quite rightly, is concerned about the lawfulness of the FCC's preemption action," said Randolph May, president of the conservative-leaning Free State Foundation and a former FCC lawyer. Others said that the FCC's decision to preempt those state laws falls outside the Justice Department's traditional area of expertise, which could explain its decision to bow out this time.