Court Rules California Net Neutrality Law May Finally Take Effect

CYBERSPACE—When California passed its own, state-level net neutrality law in 2018, the United States Justice Department immediately stepped in to stop it. The Trump administration DoJ sued California, saying that the law contradicted the Federal Communications Commission repeal of net neutrality rules, which took effect earlier that year. In February, the new Joe Biden administration withdrew that lawsuit. That left only a lawsuit from private tech industry trade groups as an obstacle to the state law taking effect. On Tuesday, a federal judge effectively cleared that obstacle as well, at least for now, when he refused to grant an injunction against the law taking effect, as the industry groups wanted. California is now free to enforce the net neutrality law, even though the federal regulations remain repealed, according to the ruling by Eastern District of California Judge John Mendez.  Net neutrality is a policy that prohibits internet service providers from favoring, or discriminating against, any source of online traffic by slowing or blocking that traffic—or giving some data access to an internet “fast lane” while denying it to other sources. The policy is especially important for the online adult industry, which could find itself subject to blocking or slowing as a form of censorship without net neutrality protections. In his ruling, Mendez—who was appointed to the federal bench in 2008 by President George W. Bush—said that the decision over whether net neutrality should be law is better left to Congress, rather than the courts.  "When you have to deal with legislation drafted in 1934 in 2021, I don’t think anyone is well served,” Mendez said in his decision, as quoted by tech reporter Mike Swift. “That is Congress' job. They have to keep up with what is going on in the real world." Though federal net neutrality rules were first imposed under the Barack Obama administration, and then repealed under Trump, Mendez said that his decision was “legal” and “shouldn’t be viewed in a political lens. I'm not expressing anything on the soundness of the policy. That's better left to Congress,” he added. The Obama-era net neutrality rules were repealed by the Federal Communications Commission, which was then chaired by Trump appointee Ajit Pai, a former telecom industry lawyer. But Pai resigned on January 20, the day of Biden’s inauguration. The new president quickly named net neutrality advocate Jessica Rosenworcel to serve as “acting” chair of the FCC. But the five-member board is still missing one member, as Biden has yet to name a fifth. The board is now split evenly between Democrats and Republicans, blocking any chance that Rosenworcel could act to put the Obama-era rules back in place at the federal level. But Rosenworcel hailed Tuesday's court ruling, calling it “big news for open internet policy.”  California State Senator Scott Wiener, who sponsored the state’s 2018 net neutrality bill, called the Mendez ruling a “major win for net neutrality.” The state's law is “the strongest net neutrality law in the nation,” Wiener wrote on his Twitter account. “We worked incredibly hard to pass this law, overcoming massive corporate opposition. California can now fully protect an open internet.” In a statement, the industry trade groups said that they would “review” the court’s ruling before deciding whether to appeal. Photo By Gerd Altmann / Pixabay