Public Interest Groups Decline To Seek Supreme Court Review of FCC Open Internet Rules

Public Knowledge joined the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society, Free Press, and New America’s Open Technology Institute to announce a decision not to file a petition for certiorari seeking U.S. Supreme Court review of a lower court decision that struck down federal Net Neutrality rules. The overturned Federal Communications Commission decision had also classified broadband internet-access services under Title II of the Communications Act. In April 2024, the Federal Communications Commission properly declared that broadband internet access is a “telecommunications service.” That restored the agency’s jurisdiction over these crucial connections, allowing it to hold powerful companies accountable for providing internet-access service on just, reasonable, and nondiscriminatory terms. The FCC at that time also reinstated its Net Neutrality rules and made allowance for a wide range of consumer protections to improve public safety, broadband reliability, and internet affordability. In January 2025, the Sixth Circuit Court wrongly held that broadband is what the law calls an “information service,” which is subject to far less stringent FCC safeguards. Over the past quarter century, jurists, including Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia and appeals-court judges in other circuits, typically understood that broadband is a telecommunications service offering the basic function of transmitting data for its customers. The time period for intervenors to seek Supreme Court review of this decision ended on Aug. 8, 2025.