<P> On January 14, 2014, the DC Circuit Court determined in the case of Verizon Communications Inc. v. Federal Communications Commission that the FCC had no authority to enforce network neutrality rules as long as service providers were not identified as "common carriers". The court agreed that FCC can regulate broadband and may craft more specific rules that stop short of identifying service providers as common carriers . </P> <P> As a response to the DC Circuit Court's decision, a dispute developed as to whether net neutrality could be guaranteed under existing law, or if reclassification of ISPs was needed to ensure net neutrality . Wheeler stated that the FCC had the authority under Section 706 of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 to regulate ISPs, while others, including President Obama, supported reclassifying ISPs as common carriers under Title II of the Communications Act of 1934 . Critics of Section 706 point out that the section has no clear mandate to guarantee equal access to content provided over the internet, while subsection 202 (a) of the Communications Act states that common carriers cannot "make any unjust or unreasonable discrimination in charges, practices, classifications, regulations, facilities, or services ." Advocates of net neutrality have generally supported reclassifying ISPs under Title II, while FCC leadership and ISPs have generally opposed such reclassification . The FCC stated that if they reclassified ISPs as common carriers, the commission would selectively enforce Title II, so that only sections relating to broadband would apply to ISPs . </P> <P> On February 19, 2014, the FCC announced plans to formulate new rules to resume enforcing net neutrality while complying with the court rulings . However, in the event, on April 23, 2014, the FCC reported a new draft rule that would permit broadband ISPs such as Comcast and Verizon to offer content providers, such as Netflix, Disney or Google, willing to pay a higher price, faster connection speeds, so their customers would have preferential access, thus reversing its earlier position and (so far as opinion outside the ISP sector generally agreed) would deny net neutrality . </P> <P> Public response was heated, pointing out FCC chairman Tom Wheeler's past as a president and CEO of two major ISP - related organizations, and the suspicion of bias towards the profit - motives of ISPs as a result . Shortly afterwards, during late April 2014, the contours of a document leaked that indicated that the FCC under Wheeler would consider promulgating rules allowing Internet service providers (ISPs) to violate net neutrality principles by making it easier for Internet users to access certain content--whose owners paid fees to the ISPs (including cable companies and wireless ISPs)--and harder to access other content, thus undermining the traditional open architecture of the Internet . These plans received substantial backlash from activists, the mainstream press, and some other FCC commissioners . In May 2014, over 100 Internet companies--including Google, Microsoft, eBay, and Facebook--signed a letter to Wheeler voicing their disagreement with his plans, saying they represented a "grave threat to the Internet". As of May 15, 2014, the "Internet fast lane" rules passed with a 3--2 vote . They were then open to public discussion that ended July 2014 . </P>

When do they vote on the net neutrality