A federal judge in California ruled Tuesday that a first state net neutrality law passed in the state in 2018 can now be enforced, signifying a huge victory for advocates of a more egalitarian Internet and paving the way for other states to begin introducing open internet rules of their own.
After the Trump administration moved to eliminate net neutrality protection at national level by 2018, California legislators had tried to take matters into their own hands by tinkering legislation to avoid menternet service providers of blocking or slowing down web traffic
Not long after it was passed, the digital protection law came in was met legal opposition from telecom giants, including AT&T, Comcast, Verizon, and others, as well as from the Trump-era Justice Department, which filed a lawsuit to block the law just hours after it first went into effect.
But on Tuesday, US District Court John Mendez ruled that the law could pass enforcement, and he also dismissed a pending injunction. of a telecom association whose members were AT&T, Verizon and Charter.
“The judge ruled that the law has a solid legal basis and that the ISPs trying to overthrow it are unlikely to prevail,” wrote Barbara van Schewick, a law professor at Stanford University. one of the legal instructions in support of the law, the Washington Post
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“The judge found, as I have long argued, that an agency that says it has no authority to regulate, also does not have it to tell others they cannot regulate,” she said.
The news comes weeks after the Justice– under one net neutrality friendly Biden administration – announced it was drop his Trump era lawbusiness suit against California’s proposed protections.
The four trade groups were involved in attempts to overthrow the law – the American Cable Association, CTIA, the National Cable and Telecommunications Association and USTelecom – said further Tuesday that they “will assess the court’s opinion before deciding on the next steps,” indicating that an appeals process may begin that will again delay California to enforce the law
“A state-by-state approach to internet regulation will confuse consumers and deter innovation, just as the importance of broadband has never been more apparent to all,” said the groups said in a joint statement. “We agree with the Court that a fragmented approach is untenable and that Congress should codify rules for an open Internet.”