Ars gives an excellent rundown of recent proceedings which may hold grave implications for FCC jurisdiction over the Internet. Essentially Comcast is arguing that the FCC took charge of the Net through a policy statement. If you’re interested in the issues, I would recommend reading the article in full (note there are 2 pages), but here are a few highlights:
For the next ten minutes the judges and Comcast talked cases and precedents. Then [Justice] Randolph cut to the chase. “In looking this over I found a good many situations in which Congress has instructed the FCC to study the Internet,” he opined, “and taxation of transit sales transactions on the Internet, and this, and that, and the other thing. But what I don’t find is any congressional directive to the FCC to regulate the Internet.” It wasn’t hard for [Comcast attorney] Walker to summon a response to this observation. “That’s right,” she declared.
[After arguing that a Congressional order to the FCC to bear the responsibility for rolling out broadband access…] By the end of the discussion [FCC attorney] Schlick was bargaining with the judges. “If I’m going to lose I would like to lose more narrowly,” he confided. “But above all, we want guidance from this Court so that when we do this rule-making, if we decide rules are appropriate we’d like to know what we need to do to establish jurisdiction.”
What’s next if DC Court says FCC has no power over ISPs (Ars Technica)