Assessing the Rosenworcel Era: Lessons for Incoming FCC Chairman Carr

This guest post by BC Law Professor and Associate Dean of Academic Affairs Daniel Lyons first appeared in the AEIdeas Blog.


Blair Levin is one of telecommunications policy’s respected elder statesmen. He served as chief of staff to Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Reed Hundt, executive director of the National Broadband Plan, and played a key role for the Obama transition team. His insightful commentary on tech issues, offered from his current perches at Brookings and New Street Research, is followed closely by power players both in Washington and on Wall Street.

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Breaking Down a Big Week in the Net Neutrality Case

This guest post by BC Law Professor and Associate Dean of Academic Affairs Daniel Lyons first appeared in the AEIdeas Blog.


While the eyes of much of the country were on Pennsylvania and Georgia last week, the tech community was focused on Cincinnati, where the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals heard arguments in the net neutrality case. As I’ve noted before, it’s unwise to predict a decision based on oral argument alone. But the arguments signaled that the court is far more interested in the merits of the case than most anticipated. This post discusses that shift, while acknowledging that events last Tuesday may ultimately overshadow those on Halloween.

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Net Neutrality, and other FCC Initiatives Jeopardized Post-Chevron

This guest post by BC Law Professor and Associate Dean of Academic Affairs Daniel Lyons first appeared in the AEIdeas Blog.

It has been a big week for tech policy at the Supreme Court. As my AEI colleague Clay Calvert discussed, the NetChoice cases endorsed social media platforms’ First Amendment right of editorial control. But for the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and other agencies, Loper Bright, which overturned Chevron, looms largest. The FCC in particular has long benefited from Chevron’s command that agencies, not courts, are the primary arbiters of an ambiguous statute’s meaning. Overturning this regime, and restoring that authority to courts, is likely to pose additional challenges for net neutrality, digital discrimination, and other FCC initiatives that capitalized on ambiguous language to accomplish the agency’s policy objectives.

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