Trump’s Justice Department sues California over net neutrality law

It’s official: we can’t call anything that happens in the fight over net neutrality “Official” anymore.

Late Sunday evening, the Justice Department filed a lawsuit against the state of California to refute its landmark net neutrality legislation. This is just the latest of many tit for tat maneuverings in a years-long battle to legally define internet freedom. 

Net neutrality advocates think that the government should classify the internet as a utility, and therefore Internet Service Providers (ISPs) must treat all content and access to the internet “neutrally.” Opponents say that the internet is an interstate information service, so that ISPs should be able to charge for access and content as they see fit.

But with this latest legal development, there are too many variables to say which viewpoint will ultimately — if ever — come out on top.

Jeff Sessions’ embattled Justice Department sued California on the same day that Gov. Jerry Brown signed the state’s comprehensive bill into law. The JD argues that the internet is a function of interstate commerce, therefore it falls under federal jurisdiction. 

“Under the Constitution, states do not regulate interstate commerce—the federal government does,” Attorney General Jeff Sessions said in a statement. “Once again the California legislature has enacted an extreme and illegal state law attempting to frustrate federal policy.”

The California bill’s original author, State Senator Scott Wiener, issued a statement rebuking the lawsuit.

“Sessions and his boss Donald trump aren’t satisfied with the federal government repealing net neutrality,” Wiener wrote. ” In their world, *no one* is allowed to protect an open internet.”

This legal battle will likely come down to the issue of interstate commerce. If California’s past winning record in battles with the Trump administration to protect its progressive agenda is any indication, the state will put up a good fight. Still, with net neutrality now wending its way through US district courts, we may not know how this will play out for years.

The lawsuit is also only the most recent tactic in an issue that has been fought over for years; Mashable has in the past declared net neutrality both saved, when the Obama administration established net neutrality in 2015 — and “dead,” when Trump’s FCC killed it in 2017. That speaks to how invested the stakeholders are on both sides, because having the final word on whether the internet is a utility or an information service could make internet companies an immense amount of money. Or, it could cost the public its online freedom.

But now it’s clear that what the FCC says might not go. California is not the only state to enact strong net neutrality protections — over thirty states have introduced similar legislation. So this battle could play out again and again. 

There is also a net neutrality bill in Congress, which has the ability too both protect net neutrality, and legislate it at the federal level. Though net neutrality is often a partisan issue, with Republicans against and Democrats for, the Republican-majority Senate passed a bill protecting net neutrality by reversing the FCC ruling in May. Democrats have failed to force a vote of the bill in the House. But that could change if the predicted “blue wave” of the midterms comes to fruition. And, in yet another potential battle, the strength of the wave (or perhaps tsunami) could even override any potential Trump veto.

And then there’s Trump. Trump seems to be basically following his policy of: If Obama was for it, I’m against it. He also somewhat nonsensically tweeted about net neutrality in 2014, conflating the issue with “stifling conservatives,” and arguing that the FCC did not have the authority that it is so righteously claiming now. 

Trump has also proven that he’s not loyal to anyone but himself. So there’s no telling if he’ll stick by FCC Chairman Ajit Pai if it comes down to a bill on his desk.

Net neutrality has been killed, resuscitated, kicked down, and brought back to life now so many times that this issue might not be settled any time soon, especially as our governing bodies mutate with each passing term limit. The one certainty is that in this fight, no one is backing down. And while that seems exhausting, advocates of internet freedom aren’t giving up — and neither should you.