"The Buck Stops at the FCC"-(Net Neutrality)

[KoKo]

27. Merrily...Thank You...Key Points from your Post that are Important:

I am certain that authors cited below read the Opinion and noted that Verizon raised a Constitutional claim. None of them seem to think it an obstacle.

At the very least, I don't see any rationale for keeping the FCC from at least trying re-classification, given what is at stake.

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Next, an article by Michael Copps, the title of which is quoted in my post.[/]b

Copps is a Phi Beta Kappa college graduate with a Ph.d, IOW, both smart and highly-educated. For 12 years, Copps was Chief of Staff to Democratic U.S. Senator Hollings. Then, Copps was an Assistant Secretary in the Commerce Department. IOW, very used to dealing with federal statutes and courts.

Most relevantly, Copps became a commissioner of the FCC in 2001. Cops served as a commissioner of the FCC for a total of 10.5 years. When Obama took office, he chose Copps as acting head of the FCC until Genachowski could be formally nominated and confirmed. Copps served as acting head of the FCC for six months.

In 2011, Copps distinguished himself by being the only FCC Commissioner to vote against allowing giant Comcast to join with NBC Universal. Said Copps at the time:

In sum, this is simply too much, too big, too powerful, too lacking in benefits for American consumers and citizens.... I would be true to neither the statute nor to everything I have fought for here at the Commission over the past decade if I did not dissent from what I consider to be a damaging and potentially dangerous deal (..) At the end of the day, the public interest requires more-much more-than it is receiving. The Comcast-NBCU joint venture opens the door to the cableization of the open Internet. The potential for walled gardens, toll booths, content prioritization, access fees to reach end users, and a stake in the heart of independent content production is now very real.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Copps

FYI, Wiki is not clear about how long Copps served on the FCC in all, but about 10.5 years is correct. http://www.fcc.gov/leadership/michael-j-copps

Truth #2 The FCC can act further on net neutrality without further legislation by Congress.

Here is a link to the article written by Copps entitled, The Buck Stops With the FCC. http://benton.org/node/172880 The article was published January 22, 2014, after the decision in Verizon v. FCC, and before either of the statements by FCC Head Wheeler referenced above.

Former FCC Commissioner Copps' article states, among other things, that the FCC can legally re-classify broadband providers to common carrier without more legislation by Congress and should do so.


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In light of Copps' intelligence, experience in government in general, and as FCC Commissioner and Acting FCC Chief in particular, I cannot imagine anyone much more qualified to make that determination.

Some may object that Copps is not a lawyer. Fair enough, which brings me to Tim Wu.

Tim Wu is not merely a lawyer, but a law professor at Columbia University in the fields of internet, media and communications. He wrote The Master Switch (2010) and Who Controls the Internet (2006), and Net Neutrality, Broadband Discrimination (2002) And, he is a former legal adviser to the FCC.

http://www.law.columbia.edu/fac/Tim_Wu and http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/elements/2014/04/the-end-of-net-neutrality.html

In a post at The New Yorker (link above), Wu accused President Obama of having broken firm campaign promises about net neutrality. The post was made the day after Wheeler's April 23 statement about not promulgating new net neutrality rules after all. Some DUers have suggested that the article did not mention the court ruling, which is true. However, looking at the timing of Wu's article--less than a full day after the news of Wheeler's plans hit the media--and Wu's own credentials, it seems almost bizarre to contemplate that Wu was not familiar with the January Opinion when he posted the article in April.

Some DUers also thought that Wu should have offered the FCC, an arm of the federal government, advice on how to get around the January Opinion. I hope this post and the sources cited in make very clear that there was nothing in the January 14 Opinion that the the FCC had to get around before beginning a new rulemaking process to re-classify broadband providers as common carriers and to adopt net neutrality rules. (The LAT article linked to above also states that as one of the three options that the Court left the FCC.)

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must acknowledge that it was DUer villager who brought the Wu/New Yorker post to the attention of DU by posting about it in an OP.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024866734