Federal net-neutrality protections returned in 2024, then fell to a 2025 appellate ruling
Reporting and findings
- reported
The Washington Post reports that the FCC's 2024 restoration of federal net-neutrality rules was vacated by the Sixth Circuit on January 2, 2025 for lack of statutory authority; the ruling followed, but was legally distinct from, the Trump administration's 2017 policy support for repeal.
- The Washington Post: Federal appeals court strikes down FCC's net neutrality rules2017 repeal, 2024 restoration, and January 2025 Sixth Circuit holding
- documented
On 2017-07-18, Donald Trump’s White House stated that the administration supported the FCC chair’s effort to review and consider rolling back the Obama-era net-neutrality rules.
Corrects claim:batch-200:net-neutrality-rollback-support-2017- Trump White House Archives: Press Briefing by Principal Deputy Press Secretary Sarah SandersOperative text of the cited action
Summary and current status
The 2017 administration backed repeal; the FCC restored the rules under Biden. The Sixth Circuit later held that the FCC lacked statutory authority to classify broadband for those federal rules.
Federal FCC rules vacated by the Sixth Circuit in 2025; state protections remain a separate layer.
People and organizations
- Trump administration support for net-neutrality rollbackexecutive action under legal and impact review
- Donald J. Trumppresident who issued the action
Relationships in this file
- Donald J. Trumppublicly backed net-neutrality rollbackTrump administration support for net-neutrality rollback