Tennessee explains why it should be able to limit city-run ISPs

Tennessee has continued its fight against a city that wants to expand municipal broadband service, arguing in a legal brief that the Federal Communications Commission can't preempt state laws that limit the rights of cities and towns to offer Internet access.

In a brief filed Sept 18 in a federal appeals court, Tennessee argued that states have an "inviolable right to self-governance," which means that a state may delegate powers to its political subdivisions -- i.e. cities and towns -- as it sees fit. The brief was in support of the lawsuit Tennessee filed against the Federal Communications Commission in March, shortly after the FCC voted to preempt the broadband-limiting state law. "Far from being a simple matter of preemption, as the FCC claims, this intervention between the State and its subordinate entities is a manifest infringement on State sovereignty," Tennessee's lawyers wrote. The FCC is scheduled to file its response to Tennessee by November 5.