ISPs must follow net neutrality in New Jersey, governor declares

ISPs can’t block or throttle traffic if they sell broadband to state agencies.

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[C.M. Allen]

If the FCC decides it shouldn’t regulate, it gives states the rights to regulate.

I've seen this repeated a lot here. It's NOT what the FCC says. The FCC says it has the exclusive right to regulate American internet companies, and doubles down on this by expressly forbidding states from applying net neutrality rules.

Except that Verizon sued, and won, when the FCC tried to previously do that without Title II. And the FCC took Title II back off the table with this order, so based on the Verizon suit can no longer regulate or deregulate Net Neutrality.

The ruling at the time was that ISPs were not common carriers, and thus exempt from NN rules.

The FCC under Wheeler then classified ISPs as common carriers, thus eliminating the exemption.

The FCC under Pai removed the classification.

This clearly shows that the FCC does have the right to regulate ISPs. It currently chooses not to.

That's right... the FCC has the right to regulate if ISP's are a common carrier. Remove common carrier status, and the FCC loses that authority.

And who decides that status? The FCC.

"Hey, guys! Today you're common carrier, so let's regulate!"

"Hey, guys! Today you're no longer common carrier, go do what you want!"

The FCC never loses that authority.

You're missing the point: in order for the FCC to enact the 'no regulatory oversight' framework being espoused, they have to have regulatory authority over the internet, which means the internet MUST be a Common Carrier service and subject to all the requirements therein (including all that NN entails). If the internet is no longer a common carrier service, then the FCC no longer has the regulatory authority to force the issue.

It's a catch-22. To do what Pai's FCC wants to do, they have to have the power that, by the very act of having it, prevents them from doing so.