WILLIAMS, Senior Circuit Judge, concurring in part and
dissenting in part: I agree with much of the majority opinion
but am constrained to dissent. In my view the Commission’s
Order must be vacated for three reasons:
I. The Commission’s justification of its switch in
classification of broadband from a Title I information service
to a Title II telecommunications service fails for want of
reasoned decisionmaking. (a) Its assessment of broadband
providers’ reliance on the now-abandoned classification
disregards the record, in violation of its obligation under
F.C.C. v. Fox Television Stations, Inc., 556 U.S. 502, 515
(2009). Furthermore, the Commission relied on explanations
contrary to the record before it and failed to consider issues
critical to its conclusion. Motor Vehicles Mfrs. Ass’n v. State
Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co., 463 U.S. 29, 43 (1983). (b) To the
extent that the Commission relied on changed factual
circumstances, its assertions of change are weak at best and
linked to the Commission’s change of policy by only the
barest of threads. (c) To the extent that the Commission
justified the switch on the basis of new policy perceptions, its
explanation of the policy is watery thin and self-contradictory.
II. The Commission has erected its regulatory scheme on
two statutory sections that would be brought into play by
reclassification (if reclassification were supported by reasoned
decisionmaking), but the two statutes do not justify the rules
the Commission has adopted.
Application of Title II gives the Commission authority to
apply § 201(b) of the Communications Act, 47 U.S.C.
§ 201(b). The Commission invokes a new interpretation of
§ 201 to sustain its ban on paid prioritization. But it has failed
to offer a reasonable basis for that interpretation. Absent such
a basis, the ban is not in accordance with law. 5 U.S.C.
§ 706(2)(A) & (C).
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