Linguistic Gerrymandering: The FCC Moves to Regulate the Internet

James Gattuso / June 17, 2010

It’s been a bad week for the rule of law. First, President Obama — without any apparent legal authority — “informs” BP that it is to hand over $20 billion into an escrow fund, or else. Not to be outdone, the Federal Communications Commission this morning voted 3-2 to take the first steps toward regulating the Internet. The decision comes only two months after a federal court — rather definitively – ruled that the agency had no authority to do take that step.

Specifically, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in April that the Communications Act only allows the FCC to regulate “telecommunications” service.” And, since the agency has earlier concluded that broadband Internet service was NOT “telecommunications,” that means — the court decided — the FCC generally could not regulate broadband. So how does the FCC, led by Chairman Julius Genachowski, propose to get around that problem? By re-defining broadband as a “telecommunications service,” after all.

Never mind that the initial classification of broadband was the result of a years-long inquiry by the Commission. The FCC (or at least 3 out of its 5 members) wants to regulate broadband. And if only telecommunications can be regulated, then its telecommunications. It’s reminiscent of Lewis Carroll’s Humpty-Dumpty, who famously said: “when I use a word, it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.” (more…)