A federal appeals court on Tuesday dealt a major blow to the Obama administration and net neutrality advocates.

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Democrats on the Federal Communications Commission say the federal court's decision regarding Comcast has renewed their resolve to reclassify broadband as a telecommunications service in order to enact net neutrality regulations.

"The only way the Commission can make lemonade out of this lemon of a decision is to do now what should have been done years ago: treat broadband as the telecommunications service that it is," said Michael J. Copps, the senior Democratic member of the panel. "We should straighten this broadband classification mess out before the first day of summer."

Similarly, Mignon Clyburn said the court's decision "does not change the importance of our goal."

"Indeed, we now have the kind of guidance that will enable us to develop the most effective and legally sound rules of the road to preserve Internet openness and to achieve other important goals set forth in the National Broadband Plan," she said in a statement.

Republican commissioners, however, said they were pleased by the court's decision and hope the Chairman does not try to reclassify.

"I am pleased that today’s court order makes clear that Title I of the Communications Act provides the FCC with no authority to regulate the network management practices of an Internet service provider," said Robert McDowell.  "I hope this decision will provide certainty in the marketplace and will not lead to the unnecessary classification of broadband service as a monopoly phone service under Title II of the Act.”

Meredith Attwell Baker said the court was right to limit the FCC's authority to regulate the Internet.

"The D.C. Circuit’s strong words today remind us that as an independent agency, we must always be constrained by the statute.  We stray from it at our peril," she said.

Baker added: "With regard to the substantive policy at issue in this case—net neutrality—I would oppose calls to use the court’s decision as a pretext to reclassify broadband Internet access services under monopoly-era Title II regulation."  

Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch (Utah) late Tuesday praised a federal appeals court for ruling the FCC's attempts to instate network neutrality rules are beyond its legal mandate.

In a statement hailing that decision, Hatch, the chairman of the Senate Republican High-Tech Task Force, described the court's move as "critical to those who've been fighting to keep the ever-expanding hand of government off the Internet."

"It’s clear that the FCC overstepped its authority with an aggressive agenda of more and more regulation at the expense of the American people," Hatch said. "This is also good news for the future prosperity of the Internet, because there is now an actual incentive to expand capacity, which benefits consumers and our economy alike.”

If anything, Hatch's statement is but a preview of the coming congressional battle over net neutrality -- the principle that networks ought not to interfere with users' Web traffic.

Tuesday's court ruling, which found the FCC was wrong to sanction Comcast in 2008 for blocking its users' access to a file-sharing service, means it could require an act of Congress for the agency to begin regulating broadband services once again.

But bringing that legislation to the floor and advancing it to the president's desk could prove exceptionally difficult, as the net neutrality debate largely follows party lines.

Most Democrats, including President Barack Obama, believe the rules would ensure open access to Web content, while a majority of Republicans view the entire net neutrality movement as an attempt to regulate what is at its most basic a private industry.

GOPers have thus long promised to scuttle such legislation, to the delight of telecommunications companies that also view net neutrality as a threat on their ability to manage their own network resources.

“Yet despite an overwhelming record of innovation, and customer satisfaction, Washington wants to replace the judgment of consumers with that of politicians and bureaucrats," Hatch wrote in a Wall Street Journal op-ed in October, with the support of S.C. Senator Jim DeMint (R). "Net neutrality may sound like fairness but it is actually the opposite."

TUESDAY BLOG ROUNDUP:
Court drives FCC to broadband nuclear option - Ryan Singel, Wired
Court ruling calls net neutrality regulations into question - Nancy Scola, techPresident
The courts can't take away our Internet - Megan Tady, HuffPo
China-based hacking targets Indian government - John Timmer, ars technica
Powell gets iPad for bday - Cecilia Kang, Post Tech
Verizon CEO told Apple his company wants iPhone - Donald Melanson, Engadget
New round of health IT grants - Juliana Gruenwald, Tech Daily Dose

OTHER STORIES FROM THE HILL:
FCC dealt significant blow in ruling that favors Comcast - The Hill
Think tanks, interest groups weigh in on FCC/Comcast ruling - The Hill
Kerry: FCC has 'rationale' to consider reclassification - The Hill
Barton: Court decision is 'logical conclusion' - The Hill

Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas), ranking member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, warned the FCC not to attempt to reclassify broadband for net neutrality.

"The DC Circuit's decision should mean that litigation plays out to a logical conclusion and in the meantime, the FCC should not reclassify information services as Title 2 services," he said in a statement.

He added, "The guiding principle is already explicit in the 1996 Telecommunications Act, where the government is directed 'to preserve the vibrant and competitive free market that presently exists for the Internet and other interactive computer services, unfettered by Federal or State regulation.'

Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) on Tuesday stressed the FCC would be within its legal bounds to reclassify broadband in a way that it can begin regulating it, though he quickly noted he was not yet "advocating that" kind of change.

A federal appeals court ruled earlier in the day that the FCC has only limited powers to regulate broadband providers, as high-speed Internet is a "Title I" service over which it does not have jurisdiction.

But Kerry said Tuesday the FCC would have a "strong rationale" for revising those rules to reflect broadband as a "Title II" service, which the agency can regulate. The senator later suggested he could introduce legislation that would clear up the nation's ambiguous broadband oversight rules.

“This is a history-making decision. It appears to vacate the authority of the FCC to conduct oversight over broadband service and the telephone and cable giants that own the wires,” Kerry, the chairman of the Commerce Committee, said of the court's 3-0 decision in favor of Comcast.

“I am not advocating that the FCC reclassify broadband services as a result of this decision, but I absolutely believe they maintain that legal authority and it would be entirely consistent with the history of communications law in our country if they did," he said.

The FCC has already hinted it is considering such a change in its rules, stressing in a statement released earlier Tuesday that the court's 3-0 decision in favor of Comcast "did it close the door to other methods for achieving this important end.”

But doing so would surely invoke the ire of the country's top telecommunications firms, including Verizon, AT&T and Comcast. Verizon and AT&T, at least, have already promised to fight re-classification efforts in court. Comcast, meanwhile, has already demonstrated its willingness to challenge the FCC's authority in the broadband realm.

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Today's court ruling that overturned the FCC's 2008 order for Comcast to stop interfering with traffic has caught the attention of every organization and company that cares about net neutrality. 

Here's a sampling of the statements we've received from both sides of the net neutrality debate.

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A federal appeals court on Tuesday dealt a major blow to the Obama administration and net neutrality advocates.

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Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), a senior member of the House Energy & Commerce Committee, told the FCC to "take any actions necessary to ensure that consumers and competition are protected on the Internet."

Markey is the co-author of net neutrality legislation--the Internet Freedom Preservation Act-- in the House with California Democrats Anna Eshoo and Henry Waxman. He pointed out that the court did not question the wisdom behind net neutrality policies.

"We are now at a crucial crossroads -- do we preserve the historic openness of the Internet, which has made it the most successful communications medium of all time, or do we enable Comcast and other communications colossi to erect fast lanes and slow lanes that stifle the ingenuity and investment that have characterized the Internet since its inception?" he said.

"I will also continue to work with my colleagues in Congress to provide the Commission any additional authority it may need to ensure the openness of the Internet for consumers, innovators and investors," he said.   "Clearly, the Court’s decision must not be the final word on this vitally important matter, and I intend to work vigorously to ensure an open Internet for generations to come."