Why The FCC's Net Neutrality Rules Were Struck Down

The decades-long fight over net neutrality appears to be over.

In one of the first appellate decisions since the Supreme Court of the United States overturned Chevron deference in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo(2024), the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit's decision in Ohio Telecom Association v. FCC (2025) held that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) lacks authority to reinstate its 2015 net neutrality rules. In many ways, the long battle over net neutrality served as a testing ground for the evolving jurisprudence on how much deference should be owed to federal agencies' interpretations of their own delegated authority.

The Net Neutrality Saga in Brief