Public Interest Groups Quiet on Net Neutrality Ahead of Aug. 8 Supreme Court Deadline

A decades-old legal battle could be over.

Public Interest Groups Quiet on Net Neutrality Ahead of Aug. 8 Supreme Court Deadline
Photo of former Democratic FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel testifying before the Senate Commerce Committee in June 2020, from Jonathan Newton/The Washington Post via AP.

WASHINGTON, August 6, 2025 – Facing a Friday deadline, public interest groups have yet to disclose whether they will take the Net Neutrality fight to the Supreme Court or let the current legal battle die.

In April 2024, the FCC under Democratic Chair Jessica Rosenworcel adopted the Net Neutrality rules, which reclassified broadband internet service as a Title II telecommunications service under the Telecommunications Act of 1996 and gave the FCC regulatory authority over them. 

In January 2025, a unanimous three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit in Cincinnati struck down the rules, holding that the FCC lacked the statutory authority to impose the regulations – especially in light of the Supreme Court’s June 2024 decision in Loper Bright, which ended judicial deference to FCC interpretation of ambiguous laws.

In late May, Supreme Court Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh, who oversees the Sixth Circuit, granted Free Press, New America's Open Technology Institute, Public Knowledge, and the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society an extension until Aug. 8, 2025, to file an appeal. 

New America confirmed it planned to issue a joint release Friday.

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