Verizon argues that the Federal Communications Commission’s new network neutrality rules exceed the agency’s regulatory authority and violate network owners’ First Amendment right to freedom of speech and its Fifth Amendment property rights.
Congress has debated net neutrality 11 times since 2006 but has yet to enact legislation. Even if it had, Verizon argues that it would violate its constitutional rights.
“Broadband networks are the modern-day microphone by which their owners [e.g. Verizon] engage in First Amendment speech,” writes Verizon.
“Although broadband providers have generally exercised their discretion to allow all content in an undifferentiated manner, they nonetheless possess discretion that these rules preclude them from exercising,” the company adds. “The FCC’s concern that broadband providers will differentiate among various content presumes that they will exercise editorial discretion.”
Verizon also believes the FCC’s rules violate the Fifth Amendment through a “government compulsion to turn over [network owners’] private property for use by others without compensation.”
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