A U.S. appeals court today ruled the Federal Communications Commission does not have the legal authority to reinstate landmark net neutrality rules first implemented by former President Barack Obama.

The ruling ends a decade-plus-long effort by Democrats to gain more oversight over the internet. In today’s ruling, the Cincinnati-based 6th U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals said the FCC does not possess the legal authority to oversee wireless and home-broadband services using the same framework that governs telephone services in the U.S.

The ruling is seen as a significant blow to President Joe Biden’s administration, which had striven to restore the open internet. Shortly after moving into the White House in 2021, Biden signed an executive order that encouraged the FCC to reinstate net neutrality rules.

However, a three-judge panel at the court said the FCC does not have the legal jurisdiction to reinstate the rules it originally implemented in 2015 during President Obama’s second term in office. The rules were repealed by the Commission in 2017, shortly after the Republican former President Donald Trump took charge.

The net neutrality rules were a flagship policy of the Obama administration, requiring internet service providers to treat internet data and users equally. Under the rules, ISPs were prohibited from restricting access, slowing speeds or blocking content from certain users. In addition, the rules also prevented ISPs from providing favored users with faster network speeds.

The court cited a Supreme Court decision in June in a case known as Loper Bright, which had overturned a 1984 precedent allowing government agencies more discretion in the way they interpret the laws they administer. “Applying Loper Bright means we can end the FCC’s vacillations,” the court ruled.

The ruling doesn’t affect state net neutrality rules adopted by California and others, but it appears to put an end to more than 20 years of efforts by Democrats to give federal regulators sweeping powers to oversee the internet.

FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel called on Congress to take action after the ruling, saying in a statement that consumers have repeatedly called for an internet that is “fast, open and fair.”

“With this decision, it is clear that Congress now needs to heed their call, take up the charge for net neutrality and put open internet principles in federal law,” she said.

The FCC had voted in April to reassume regulatory oversight of ISPs and reinstate the open internet rules first introduced by Obama. Following that move, industry groups filed a lawsuit, and judges issued an order that temporarily blocked the rules from being enforced while they considered the case.

Brendan Carr, who is set to become the new chair of the FCC when Trump moves back into the White House, voted against reinstating the rules last year, but declined to comment on today’s ruling.

Former FCC Chair Ajit Pai, who served in the rule during Trump’s first administration, said in a statement that the ruling should put an end to any more efforts to reinstate net neutrality rules. He added that he hopes the focus will now shift to things that “actually matter to American consumers – like improving internet access and promoting online innovation.”

Trump’s administration is unlikely to appeal the latest ruling, though advocates of net neutrality could still ask for a review by the Supreme Court. The rules would have given the FCC the ability to monitor internet service outages and crack down on Chinese telecommunications firms.

Big technology companies including Amazon.com Inc., Apple Inc., Alphabet Inc. and Meta Platforms Inc. had backed the net neutrality rules, while U.S. telecoms firms, including AT&T Inc. and Verizon Communications Inc., had opposed them, arguing they are “entirely counterproductive, unnecessary and an anti-consumer regulatory distraction.”

Photo: FCC/Flickr