Appeals court upholds FCC's 2017 repeal of net neutrality, but also rules the FCC can't stop states from setting their own regulations
so NJ can protect a free & open internet under its own plan. That's a significant win, even if the battle is far from over. https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ... Senator Jeff Merkley / @senjeffmerkley : Today's #NetNeutrality ruling is a blow against the free and open internet that consumers and small businesses deserve. Now it's up to states like Oregon to fight even harder to #SaveTheNet for our communities. https://twitter.com/... @nytimes : A federal appeals court upheld the repeal of net neutrality on Tuesday, but said the FCC had overstepped by broadly blocking state and local government from writing their own rules. The mixed ruling ensures debate about the issue will continue. https://www.nytimes.com/... Ed Markey / @senmarkey : Today, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C Circuit issued an opinion on the FCC's repeal of #NetNeutrality that leaves the future of the free and open internet in question. The decision is mixed, but it does three things. THREAD: https://twitter.com/... Steve Bullock / @governorbullock : The internet as we know it is on the line, and I stand with the people, not corporations seeking control and profit. #NetNeutrality https://www.nytimes.com/... Senator Brad Hoylman / @bradhoylman : Today's ruling that the FCC can't block states from enforcing #NetNeutrality rules underscores the ability and the need for New York to join California and pass a strong law to protect a free and open internet. https://www.nytimes.com/... Senate Democrats / @dscc : Re-upping this for Mitch McConnell while he continues to block the #SaveTheNet Act: Restoring #NetNeutrality would ensure we keep the internet open and fair for everyone. This is what a majority of Americans want. https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ... Ron Wyden / @ronwyden : The Trump Administration keeps working to make Big Cable bigger & richer & consumers poorer. The only consolation in today's ruling is the FCC can't block states like Oregon from passing our own net neutrality rules to preserve a free & open internet. https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ... Nilay Patel / @reckless : Trump's FCC decision to overturn net neutrality was upheld by the court today — but the judges threw out the FCC's weirdo power-grab move that prevented states from passing their own net neutrality laws. https://www.theverge.com/... Senator Gary Peters / @sengarypeters : This ruling upholding the FCC's repeal of net neutrality is a setback in the fight to ensure a free and open internet nationally. Michiganders rely on dependable, open internet access every day & I'll keep fighting to restore #NetNeutrality protections. https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ... Mark Lemley / @marklemley : DC Circuit affirms Trump administration's decision to kill net neutrality, but vacates the preemption provision, so states can go their own way. https://www.cadc.uscourts.gov/ ... Karl Bode / @karlbode : That the entire core justification for the #netneutrality repeal was based on flimsy (to nonexistent) data appears to have not played too much of a role in the court's thinking: https://www.vice.com/... Karl Bode / @karlbode : Keep in mind several of the state level #netneutrality rules go FURTHER than the 2015 FCC rules. California's SB822, for example, polices “zero rating” (which includes ISPs usage caps anti-competitively), something the FCC kind of punted on to the chagrin of many. Karl Bode / @karlbode : So the court approves the FCC's plan to gut most FCC authority over big ISPs, shoveling any remaining authority to an FTC that lacks the resources or authority to adequately police them (the entire reason the ISPs backed the proposal). But states (for now) can fill that void.
Context & Ripple Effects
The D.C. Circuit has split the baby on the FCC's 2017 repeal: the rollback of federal open-internet rules stands, but the court vacated the repeal's preemption provision, meaning the agency cannot broadly bar states from writing their own net neutrality laws. That carve-out is why senators from Oregon and New Jersey framed the ruling as both a blow and an opening.
The state lane this decision opens became the whole battlefield afterward — the same court later declined to reconsider the ruling under pressure from a dozen states and tech groups, and in 2022 it upheld California's net neutrality law on exactly this state-action reasoning.
First-order effects
- States including California, New York, New Jersey, and Oregon are immediately free to enforce their own open-internet rules without FCC preemption standing in the way.
- Broadband providers lose federal protection from state-level regulation while the underlying repeal means no federal rules replace it — they now answer to whichever state legislatures act.
Second-order effects
- Providers face a compliance patchwork instead of a single national regime, raising the cost of uniform national practices and giving large state markets like California outsized de facto standard-setting power.
- Advocacy pressure shifts from the FCC to statehouses, as Democrats like Merkley redirect the #SaveTheNet fight toward legislatures where the court has cleared them to act.
Third-order effects
- The ruling entrenches a structural pattern the corpus keeps confirming: courts constraining FCC authority over broadband in both directions, later blocking the commission's attempted reinstatement of net neutrality rules and striking down its anti-discrimination rule — leaving state law as the durable layer of internet openness regulation.
- Sustained federal paralysis pushes toward either congressional action on broadband authority or a permanently fragmented map where the openness of the internet depends on state lines.
The trend: US internet regulation is drifting away from federal FCC rules toward a state-by-state framework, as courts alternately uphold deregulation and strip the agency of power to reinstate or extend oversight.