A federal appeals court on Thursday dealt a blow to President Biden’s Federal Communications Commission, striking down the agency’s hard-fought and long-debated open internet rules.

The FCC had sought to reinstate a sweeping policy established under President Obama that was designed to treat internet service as an essential public service, similar to a water or power utility.

Under the so-called net neutrality rules, internet service providers would have been subjected to greater regulation. A Republican-led commission repealed the rules in 2017 during President-elect Donald Trump’s first term.

Early last year, the FCC — then back under Democrat control — voted to formalize a national standard for internet service to prevent the blocking or slowing of information delivered over broadband internet lines. The core principle of open internet meant that internet service providers couldn’t discriminate among content suppliers.

The order also would have given the FCC increased oversight to demand that internet providers respond to service outages or security breaches involving consumers’ data. The FCC cited national security, saying increased oversight was necessary for the commission to effectively crack down on foreign-owned companies that were deemed to be security threats.

But on Thursday, the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, based in Cincinnati, ruled that the five-member commission lacked the authority to reclassify broadband internet as a telecommunications service. The decision dismantles one of Biden’s major technology initiatives.

In its ruling, the 6th Circuit referred to the FCC’s net neutrality order as a “heavy-handed regulatory regime.”

The court said a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling had removed a judicial framework that allowed courts to interpret rules with deference to the federal agency that created them. The 6th Circuit said the FCC did not have the statutory authority to change the classification of broadband internet to a telecommunications service. That role rests with Congress.

The case was brought by the Ohio Telecom Assn., a trade organization representing internet service providers.

FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel, who has long championed the net neutrality rules, called on lawmakers to take up the mantle in the wake of the court decision. She had shepherded the move to reinstate them during her tenure leading the agency and led the 3-2 party-line vote last year to restore the net neutrality rules.

“Consumers across the country have told us again and again that they want an internet that is fast, open, and fair,” Rosenworcel said in a statement. “With this decision it is clear that Congress now needs to heed their call, take up the charge for net neutrality, and put open internet principles in federal law.”

The regulatory climate has changed dramatically in recent years and is expected to shift again after Trump moves back into the White House. Trump’s pick for FCC chairman, Brendan Carr, wrote a chapter on the FCC in the conservative policy blueprint Project 2025. Companies expect the commission under Carr to be more business-friendly.

“President Biden’s entire plan rested on the Chicken Little tactic of persuading Americans that the Internet would break in the absence of these so-called ‘net neutrality’ regulations,” Carr said in a statement. “The American people have now seen through that ruse.”

The net neutrality dispute hinged on the degree to which the FCC could regulate broadband internet service providers under the authority the commission received from Congress in the landmark Communications Act of 1934 and the Telecommunications Act of 1996.

“We hold that Broadband Internet Service Providers offer only an ‘information service’ … and therefore, the FCC lacks the statutory authority to impose its desired net-neutrality policies through the ‘telecommunications service’ provision of the Communications Act,” 6th Circuit Judge Richard Allan Griffin wrote in the26-page ruling.

Consumer groups, which lobbied for more than a decade for net neutrality regulations, lamented the decision.

“Today’s decision represents a major setback for consumers, competition, and the Open Internet,” John Bergmayer, legal director at Public Knowledge, said in a statement.

“In rejecting the FCC’s authority to classify broadband as a telecommunications service, the court has ignored decades of precedent and fundamentally misunderstood both the technical realities of how broadband works and Congress’ clear intent in the Communications Act.”

Net neutrality has been a seesaw battle for more than 15 years.

In the early days of broadband penetration, major companies lined up on opposing sides. Google, Netflix and other tech companies joined with consumer groups calling for net neutrality rules to level the playing field with internet service providers such as AT&T, Verizon, Comcast Corp. or Charter Communications.

Supporters of net neutrality wanted those providers to be regulated under Title II of the landmark communications act, which would have given the FCC a greater enforcement role.

“Recall that the market’s initial concern over Title II reclassification never had anything at all to do with net neutrality,” cable analyst Craig Moffett wrote in a note to investors. Instead, investors in telecommunications stocks were worried that such reclassification would open a door “to broadband price regulation,” Moffett wrote.

But that didn’t happen.

“That risk is now put to bed,” Moffett wrote.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., received public support from Republicans in the Senate as he faces an uncertain vote Friday to determine whether he will maintain the role in the new Congress. 

“My friend [Johnson] has done an incredible job in the House, and I’m glad he’s at the helm there as Congress looks forward to growing our economy and safeguarding our communities in the new year,” said Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., on X. 

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Johnson also got the backing of the other member of Lousiana’s Senate delegation, Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La. “I agree with President Trump that [Johnson] is the right man to lead. He’s a committed conservative and a man of integrity,” he wrote on X, referencing President-elect Donald Trump’s recent endorsement. 

During the last-minute government-spending fight last month, most Republican senators were careful not to call for Johnson’s replacement. However, that didn’t stop others, such as Sens. Rand Paul, R-Ky., and Mike Lee, R-Utah, from suggesting that someone else would do a better job. 

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Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump listens as Speaker of the House Mike Johnson speaks during a press conference at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate on April 12, 2024, in Palm Beach, Florida. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

“Technically, the rules of the House—I don’t think you have to be a member of the House to be speaker. And other people talked about it,” Paul told reporters in December. He noted that he has previously gotten stray votes to be speaker, as has Trump.

“And so, we’ll leave it open to interpretation. I think that, hey, seriously, Elon Musk is having an impact.”

When asked about his confidence in Johnson, Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., sidestepped, saying, “I can’t make a decision. I don’t know him that well. He’s got to work with everybody else. He doesn’t have to work with us.”

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Since the House speaker will be selected solely by the lower chamber, few Republican senators are expected to weigh in publicly. But the fact that some have is notable in and of itself. 

In order to be elected as the speaker of the House, a member must get a majority of the votes cast. Depending on whether all House members are there, how many vacancies there are, and whether anyone chooses to vote “present,” thereby lowering the majority threshold, Johnson could be in a situation where he can only afford to lose one GOP vote.

There are still several House members that have said they are unsure whether they will back Johnson. 

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Speaker Mike Johnson, left, and Rep. Thomas Massie (Getty)

Additionally, at least one Republican lawmaker is a “no,” even after Trump’s endorsement. 

“I respect and support President Trump, but his endorsement of Mike Johnson is going to work out about as well as his endorsement of Speaker Paul Ryan,” Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., wrote on X. “We’ve seen Johnson partner with the democrats to send money to Ukraine, authorize spying on Americans, and blow the budget.” 

The speaker vote is set to take place on Friday to set the new Congress in motion. 

I drove around downtown Los Angeles on a recent Friday morning looking for one of the Civic Center’s ugly ducklings.

The Kenneth Hahn Hall of Administration … um, which building was it again?

It had been years since my only other visit, so unmemorable that I had forgotten how the ten-story structure looked. Google Maps gave me an address, but I was lost in a sea of architectural grandeur when I finally parked in a small lot near Temple and Grand. To my left was the majestic Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels. Behind me were the Music Center’s elegant triplets of the arts: the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, Mark Taper Forum and Ahmanson Theatre.

In front of me was a building with cream-colored tiles that connected to a taller building that looked the same, except with windows.

Oh, yeah. That’s the Hall of Administration.

Seat of the county of Los Angeles since it opened in 1960, it looks like a Lego block with slits. No wonder it’s never gotten as much love from Angelenos as its flashier neighbors, especially L.A. City Hall, which looms to the south like the haughty older civic cousin it is.

That’s why there hasn’t been any uproar since the county Board of Supervisors voted in November to buy the 52-story Gas Co. Tower for $200 million — a bargain worthy of the late, great 99 Cents Only chain, since its appraised value is $632 million — with plans to relocate county workers there, from the Hall of Administration and elsewhere, as early as this summer.

Nearly a third of the purchase price came from funds originally set aside to seismically retrofit the Hall of Administration and update its electrical system, effectively sentencing the place to the literal and historical scrap heap. The county’s preliminary plan calls for razing it, except for the portion where the supervisors hold their public meetings.

The sole “no” vote came from Janice Hahn, daughter of the Hall of Administration’s legendary namesake, the longest-serving supervisor in L.A. County history. She was waiting for me in the parking lot to give me a tour of the unloved building and argue for its virtue — and survival.

“This is Nate’s Lot,” she told me, explaining that it was named after a parking attendant who told her father he didn’t like working in the Hall of Administration’s underground garage. So the supervisor created the lot just for him.

“There’s history like that all around in a building like this,” said Hahn, Starbucks chai latte in hand, as we walked through the doors. Three staffers accompanied us, including Mark Baucum, who is both her son and her chief of staff.

“It has a warm feel, not like …” Her face scrunched as if she had stepped on a snail, and she waited a beat before referencing the county’s recent purchase. “That soulless skyscraper.”

The halls gleamed with vintage charm. Marble walls and terrazzo floors. Frosted windows on doors with the old-school gold sans serif font long used by county departments. Phone booths that still work. Wood-paneled elevators that Janice and her brother, former L.A. mayor and current Superior Court Judge Jim Hahn, rode as kids like they were at an amusement park.

We walked through the spacious main lobby, where people waited in line to pay their property taxes, and out of the building toward Hill Street.

“That soulless skyscraper doesn’t have a lobby like this,” Hahn said. Across the street was the Hall of Records, built in 1962. To our left were the Stanley Mosk Courthouse, opened in 1959, and Gloria Molina Grand Park.

“They’re not on the chopping block,” she said, referring to the buildings. “People once thought City Hall was too expensive to retrofit. Were it not for civic-minded people, it would’ve been torn down. What a tragedy that would’ve been.”

As we rounded the Hall of Administration’s western side to look at large, gold-colored statues of Moses and Thomas Jefferson, the wear-and-tear of the 75-year-old building quickly became evident. Chunks missing from window ledges. Chipped granite base. Cracks on the walls here and there.

“Yes, it needs work,” Hahn acknowledged, as Baucum helped a woman who couldn’t tell the difference between the Hall of Administration and the Stanley Mosk Courthouse. “We had some of that money, but it was used to buy … that soulless skyscraper. And we have a budget of $50 billion. We can do this.”

Hahn estimated the cost to be $700 million. A spokesperson for L.A. County Chief Executive Officer Fesia Davenport said the seismic retrofit is expected to cost about $700 million, with renovations and other needed repairs bringing the estimated total to $1.8 billion.

But should it be done? I wondered as we went back inside the Hall of Administration. What possible role could an empty building play, when the other four supervisors want to get the hell out of there, and all of the money set aside to take care of it has already been spent?

One person I figured might have some pity for the Hall of Administration was Supervisor Kathryn Barger. She’s worked there since 1989 — first as an aide, then as chief of staff to then-Supervisor Mike Antonovich, and for the last eight years in her current role.

“From an aesthetic point of view, not much there,” said Barger, who voted to buy the Gas Co. Tower, in a phone interview. “You go to City Hall, you’re like, ‘Wow.’”

She gets Hahn’s point that it’s a historic structure, but Barger is more focused on the price tag for renovation, which she put at $1.2 billion. “I cannot discount Janice, but we have to do right by the taxpayers,” she said.

Barger mentioned that the supervisors are going to need much more office space after voters in November approved an eventual expansion of the board from five members to nine. She also brought up the late Gloria Molina, who served alongside Kenneth Hahn and whom Barger got to know well while working for Antonovich.

“Her vision and dream was to create more open space, and it was always shot down,” Barger said. She suggested that the Board of Supervisors could knock down the Hall of Administration, which spans the length of two city blocks, and expand Gloria Molina Grand Park.

“This issue is emotional for [Hahn],” Barger said, “but you have to separate the emotional from the reality.”

Supervisor Janice Hahn points out the word “beloved,” referring to her late father, on a plaque at the Kenneth Hahn Hall of Administration in Los Angeles.

(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

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Hahn brought up that charge herself, then disputed it.

“Every story written implies it’s because of my father,” Hahn told me as we stood in front of a plaque near the lobby praising Kenneth Hahn’s “unsurpassed legacy of good works” in 40 years as a county supervisor. He died in 1997.

“It’s not,” she continued. “People have said, ‘We’ll put his name on the skyscraper.’ Oh, hell no. He would’ve questioned the rationale of using certain budget stats to prove” the necessity of leaving the Hall of Administration, she said. “He would find holes in their argument and find $700 million to save this hall.”

The tour went on for about an hour, with Hahn greeting every single person she passed. We visited the Board of Supervisors’ meeting room, which will remain standing (“That’ll make a disjointed county government”), and finally went up to her office. A painting hangs near the entrance, depicting her on a couch with a portrait of her dad hovering above.

“This is my life,” Hahn cracked. “My dad always looking over my shoulder.”

We briefly sat down, then went outside to a terrace ringing the length of the Hall of Administration. The floor was peeling, but the view before us of the Civic Center and downtown was stunning.

I understood, and even appreciated, Hahn’s argument that moving the county offices from here, where other parts of L.A. government reside, would create “a gaping hole in the idea of civic togetherness,” as her son put it. But the fiscal reasoning against it was strong, I said, before asking if her crusade stood any chance of succeeding.

“I think so,” she said. “I think we’ll get the momentum. And Dad always loved a good fight.”

Her son pointed out a sliver of a skyscraper poking out behind another skyscraper. That was the Gas Co. Tower.

“Ugh,” the supervisor said, shaking her head. “Soulless.”

After we said our goodbyes, I walked the four blocks to Hahn’s Moby Dick, which was built in 1991. She wasn’t wrong. The exterior is a bunch of charmless windows going up and up. The lobby, with its collection of elevators, scowling security guards and small glass turnstiles, is cold and anodyne. No amount of bureaucratic lipstick can pretty up this political pig.

Maybe Hahn was right, I thought as I headed back to Nate’s Lot. Then I ran into Miguel Santana, president of the California Community Foundation and a longtime Molina confidante.

I know few people who care about L.A. history and responsible leadership as much as he does. What does he think about the county abandoning the Hall of Administration?

“Great!” he said, barely breaking his stride. “I’m all for it. Gloria always wanted to knock it down and turn it into more park.”

Good luck with your fight, Supervisor Hahn: You’re going to need it.