Overview

• In January 2025, a Sixth Circuit panel reversed the FCC’s Open Internet order and reclassified broadband as an information service under federal law.
• On August 8, leading public-interest groups including Free Press, the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society, New America’s Open Technology Institute and Public Knowledge declined to seek Supreme Court review, citing distrust in the current Court majority.
• Having exhausted the certiorari window, advocates plan to press Congress and state legislatures for a clear federal net neutrality statute and enhanced consumer protections.
• California continues to enforce its own net neutrality law after federal courts affirmed states’ rights to regulate open-internet practices when the FCC’s rules are inactive.
• With conflicting rulings across federal appeals courts, advocates expect to bring the dispute back to the Supreme Court in a future case to settle the broadband classification question.