A federal judge in California decided on Tuesday that the first network neutrality law passed in the state in 2018 can now be applied, signaling a major victory for advocates of a more equal Internet and paving the way for other states to start introducing the open iown Internet rules.
After Trump administration moved for eliminate network neutrality protections nationally in 2018California legislators had sought to solve the problems on their own by elaborating projected legislation to prevent meWeb service providers block or reduce web traffic.
Shortly after being passed, the digital protection law was found with legal opposition from telecommunications giants, including AT&T, Comcast, Verizon and others, as well as the Trump-era Justice Department, which it sued to block the law hours after it went into effect.
But on Tuesday, U.S. District Court judge John Mendez ruled that the law could be enforced and also rejected an injunction pending of a telecommunications association whose members included AT&T, Verizon and Charter.
“The judge concluded that the law has a solid legal basis and that ISPs trying to overthrow it are unlikely to prevail,” Barbara van Schewick, Stanford University law professor who wrote one of the legal documents in support of the law, told the Washington Post.
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“The judge found, as I argued a long time ago, that an agency that says it has no power to regulate, has no power to tell others that it cannot regulate,” she said.
The news comes weeks after the Department of Justice– under Biden in favor of net neutrality administration – announced that it was abandoning his Trump era lawCostume against California proposed protections.
The four business groups involved in efforts to overturn the law – American Cable Association, CTIA, National Cable and Telecommunications Association and USTelecom – said in Tuesday that they “will review the court’s opinion before deciding on next steps”, indicating the potential for an appeals process that will again delay California from enforcing the law.
“A state-to-state approach to Internet regulation will confuse consumers and hinder innovation, and the importance of broadband for everyone has never been more apparent,” say the groups. said in a joint statement. “We agree with the Court that a fragmented approach is unsustainable and that Congress must codify rules for an open Internet.”