In a report entitled The Imperial
Presidency, House
Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) took aim at the President over what he said
was "massive regulatory overreach," including network neutrality
regs, that is part of a "job-killing agenda."
Identifying
it as one of "over 40 separate examples" of the administration
skirting the law and Congress, Cantor said that businesses have been forced
into court to defend against network neutrality regulations "that the
agency has no authority to issue."
Verizon
and MetroPCS sued the commission over its Open Internet order, a case currentlybeing briefed.
Their
argument is "that the FCC lacks statutory authority to do what it did,
which they describe as a hodgepodge of provisions to justify the FCC's claim of
broad authority. They say that even if the FCC had provided a basis for
asserting ancillary authority, it did not demonstrate the rules were
"necessary to achieve any statutorily mandated task."
They
also say the rules are arbitrary and capricious and unconstitutional --
violating the First and Fifth Amendments. The First because "broadband
networks are the modern-day microphone by which their owners engage in First
Amendment speech," and the Fifth because it was a government takings
without compensation.
