[JURIST] A group of 23 House Republicans told the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit Tuesday that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) [official websites] “lacks the authority it claims … and improperly bypassed the democratic process” in passing net neutrality regulations[text, PDF]. In an amicus curiae brief [text, PDF] urging the appeals court to vacate [ARS Technica report] the FCC’s net neutrality rules, the group stated “that whether and how to regulate Internet access are policy questions of such profound significance that they are to be answered only by Congress.” The brief also spoke to the fact that over the last decade Congress has encountered several bills that would have conferred authority onto the FCC to govern net neutrality but failed to pass any, which they use as proof that Congress did not intend to confer such authority onto the Commission. This brief comes approximately one month before the oral arguments in this case, which are scheduled for December 4.

Net neutrality [JURIST backgrounder] has emerged as a major political and legal issue in the US and internationally. Last month the European Parliament voted [JURIST report] to adopt an agreement reached in June to end roaming charges by 2017 and to set net neutrality rules in the EU for the first time. In April US Congressman Doug Collins introduced a resolution to block [JURIST report] net neutrality rules that were introduced by the FCC. In November US President Barack Obama said [statement] that he strongly supports the concept of net neutrality. Last year the FCC adopted [JURIST report] new Internet traffic rules in light of a recent court decision that struck down former rules requiring broadband providers to employ nondiscriminatory practices in the treatment of Internet content. In April 2014 the European Parliament approved [JURIST report] a net neutrality proposal that prohibits Internet service providers from enhancing or restricting services for selected Internet traffic.