Federal Judge: California Can Now Enforce Net Neutrality

SACRAMENTO — A federal judge for the Eastern District of California has ruled that the state government can now enforce its own net neutrality laws. An oral ruling delivered by district Judge John Mendez described his intention not to block the law from taking effect.

Four industry groups representing internet service providers and other telecoms filed a challenge to the law. This came after the Department of Justice officially withdrew a lawsuit challenging California’s net neutrality law filed under the Trump administration.

“This decision today is a legal decision and shouldn’t be viewed in [a] political lens,” Mendez said, according to a live tweet thread posted by Eriq Gardner. Gardner is a journalist for The Hollywood Reporter who has followed this case extensively.

“I’m not expressing anything on soundness of policy,” Mendez said via Gardner’s tweets. “That’s better left to Congress.”

“We applaud the Court for affirming that California has the power to protect access to the internet and that net neutrality is vital for healthcare, education, public safety, and economic growth,” said Xavier Becerra, the current attorney general, in a statement. “This is an important victory for all Californians and for our democracy.”

He added: “The ability of an internet service provider to block, slow down, or speed up content based on a user’s ability to pay for service degrades the very idea of a competitive marketplace and the open transfer of information at the core of our increasingly digital and connected world.”

For reference, Becerra was sworn in as attorney general in 2017. That places his tenure as the state’s lead law enforcement officer at the time of Senate Bill 822’s signing into law. He is also currently undergoing the confirmation process to become President Joe Biden’s health and human services secretary.

Industry groups sought a preliminary injunction, claiming that state-to-state broadband regulation creates patchwork that would confuse people. “A state-by-state approach to Internet regulation will confuse consumers and deter network investment, just as the importance of broadband for all has never been more apparent,” the groups said.

Under former President Barack Obama, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) implemented net neutrality rules in 2015. However, under former President Donald Trump, the FCC repealed the rulemaking in 2017, after about two years of force. A year after, California’s state legislature passed Senate Bill (SB) 822.

Biden’s administration is expected to restore net neutrality in the coming months. Democratic commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel, the FCC acting chair, has long opposed the decision to scrap the initial rules. Ajit Pai, the former Republican chair who voluntarily left office on Biden’s inauguration, spearheaded a telecom industry-backed move to repeal open internet policies. Rosenworcel, as a product of her opposition to Pai’s pandering to telecom groups, welcomed Mendez’s ruling.

“When the FCC, over my objection, rolled back its net neutrality policies, states like California sought to fill the void with their own laws. Tonight a court in California decided that the state law can go into effect,” said Rosenworcel in a tweet. “This is big news for open internet policy.”

YNOT previously reported on the Department of Justice’s withdrawal of the Trump-era legal challenge.

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