Trade groups for ISPs plan to ask the Supreme Court this week to strike down a New York law mandating affordable broadband prices for low-income consumers. The groups reached an agreement with the state’s attorney general not to enforce the law while the high court considered that request, according to a letter filed with the Supreme Court last week.
But the office of Attorney General Letitia James said it planned to enforce the New York law in case the Supreme Court agreed to hear the ISPs’ appeal but denied their request for a stay, notes Broadband Breakfast.
The New York law requires monthly prices of $20 or lower for eligible subscribers. The ISPs lost a challenge to the law in April. That decision came down one day before the FCC reinstated net neutrality rules, classifying broadband as a Title II service subject to more oversight from the Commission.
Industry groups told Second Circuit judges in May that they would hold off from asking for a rehearing because they had reached a tentative deal with James’s office, according to Broadband Breakfast. Under that deal, the New York AG agreed not to enforce the law temporarily in light of the net neutrality order. That agreement was officially extended on August 7, to include holding off on enforcing the law until 30 days after the court hands down a decision on the ISPs’ petition, according to last week’s Supreme Court filing.
That petition won’t come until today, the industry groups wrote, but they outlined their argument for the Supreme Court to pause the lower court’s ruling. The agency’s net neutrality order has since been stayed after an industry challenge in the Sixth Circuit, Inside Towers reported. Oral arguments in that case are slated for late October.
By Leslie Stimson, Inside Towers Washington Bureau Chief
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