109 been subject to nondiscrimination and equal access obligations akin to those imposed by the rules without raising any First Amendment question. Those obligations affect a common carrier’s neutral transmission of others’ speech, not a carrier’s communication of its own message. Because the constitutionality of each of the rules ultimately rests on the same analysis, we consider the rules together. The rules generally bar broadband providers from denying or downgrading end-user access to content and from favoring certain content by speeding access to it. In effect, they require broadband providers to offer a standardized service that transmits data on a nondiscriminatory basis. Such a constraint falls squarely within the bounds of traditional common carriage regulation. The “basic characteristic” of common carriage is the “requirement [to] hold[] oneself out to serve the public indiscriminately.” Verizon, 740 F.3d at 651 (internal quotation marks omitted). That requirement prevents common carriers from “mak[ing] individualized decisions, in particular cases, whether and on what terms to deal.” FCC v. Midwest Video Corp., 440 U.S. 689, 701 (1979) (internal quotation marks omitted). In the communications context, common carriers “make[] a public offering to provide communications facilities whereby all members of the public who choose to employ such facilities may communicate or transmit intelligence of their own design and choosing.” Id. (alteration and internal quotation marks omitted). That is precisely what the rules obligate broadband providers to do. Equal access obligations of that kind have long been imposed on telephone companies, railroads, and postal services, without raising any First Amendment issue. See Denver Area Educational Telecommunications Consortium,

Seleccionar párrafo de destino3

Conectar a un párrafo
Connect to an entity
Disable highlights
Añadir a la tabla de contenidos