If you follow my political ramblings, you may remember a post last year about the death of Chevron:
https://www.aaaahh.net/conservatives-blow-up-another-decades-old-legal-precedent-chevron/
Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo (2024) saw the Supreme Court trash one of the longest and most cited precedents in legal history. This court is conservative in name only– they have completely upended the legal landscape of the entire country. Chevron was essentially the legal framework by which the Federal Government regulated the increasingly consolidated corporate landscape of our country.
Well, the consequences are finally coming home to roost. Net Neutrality, a simple FCC rule that states that all internet traffic is equal and must be treated equally by internet service providers, is officially dead. Trump repealed Net Neutrality with his FCC (run by a Comcast lawyer) back in his first term, and Biden tried to reinstate it. Of course, conservatives backed by Verizon and AT&T (USTelecom Lobby) fought the reinstatement in the courts and won. The judge presiding over the case cited Loper, of course, in arguing that the US Government could not regulate the internet service that our consolidated and heavily publicly funded ISPs so graciously provide us.
The repercussions of this go far beyond fast or slow internet. In deciding that internet service is a product rather than a utility, the courts have taken away the foundational idea that internet access is a fundamental right. Despite requiring the internet in our modern lives to pay bills, apply for insurance, read the news, and learn in general, the law has decided that the internet is an optional service. Buyer Beware.
The internet, of course, was a publicly funded government project to begin with, and all the infrastructure that makes it run (both hardware and software) was funded publicly or created for free by autistic lunatics. Comcast has no right beyond longevity to control the market share that it does. Unfortunately, the conservatives have also killed the Federal Trade Commission, so any plans to break up the massive communications monopoly that has taken over America are also kaput.
Remember, Republicans suck. They take away your rights every year in new and terrible ways. Every year.