Sallet to Outline Legal Challenge to Pai's Net Neutrality Rollback

Two familiar names in the net-neutrality debate are making a bicameral pitch to FCC chair Ajit Pai to rescind his net-neutrality order.

There is scant chance of that since Pai indicated Tuesday (Dec. 5) that the vote would go on as scheduled Dec. 14 and would be adopted.

Related: Pai Signals Dec. 14 Net Neutrality Vote Is On

In any event, Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.) two of the loudest and proudest proponents of the Title II-based regs Pai is rolling back, have enlisted former FCC general counsel Jon Sallet, who successfully defended the Title II regs in federal court, to team up for a press conference Wednesday (Dec. 6) to talk about how to undo Pai's order in the courts if, as they also appear to acknowledge, the order is approved Dec. 14.

Sallet helped come up with the legal defense of Title II reclassification, which ISPs challenged and the D.C. Court concluded was within the FCC's authority.

The legislators will use the press conference as a chance to paint their vision, likely pretty dystopian, of life under the FCC order, which would reclassify ISPs as Title I information services not subject to common carrier regs like mandatory access and roll back bright-line rules against blocking, throttling or prioritizing (for a price) internet content.

John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.