[2] Verizon requested judicial review of the 2010 Open Internet Order, again at the Circuit Court for the District of Columbia, with a charge that the FCC had again surpassed its regulatory authority.

Additionally, the court found that Section 706 of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 "vests the FCC with affirmative authority to enact measures encouraging the deployment of broadband infrastructure.

"[1] Of significance is Silberman's statement that the FCC has the authority to take "measures that promote competition in the local telecommunications market or other regulating methods that remove barriers to infrastructure investment."

Legal scholar Susan P. Crawford wrote that the FCC should move to regulate broadband providers as common carriers in order to preserve network neutrality in the United States.

He also predicted that even if the FCC proposed new rules, they would be challenged by the industry and overturned based on the unappealed Verizon precedent, so "simply calling a rose by another name will not change what it is, and the courts won't buy it.

April Glaser, a staff activist at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, noted that the ruling could significantly restrict the FCC's potential approaches toward network neutrality regulation.

[28] Conversely, others believed that the ruling gave the FCC too much power, to the point at which it could restrict innovative network management strategies by ISPs that might be requested by users.

[29] In January 2014, in response to the ruling, a campaign was launched on the White House's petition site, urging President Barack Obama to direct the FCC to reclassify ISPs as telecommunications services with common carrier requirements.

[30] In February 2014, Tom Wheeler, then chairman of the FCC, issued a statement responding to the court's decision and laying out the Commission's intentions for the future of network neutrality.

Wheeler stated that the Commission would not appeal the Verizon ruling, but would take the court's advice on reclassification of Internet service providers in the interests of non-discriminatory content delivery.

[31][32] The FCC then opened a new proceeding asking for public comment,[33] and in April the Chairman announced that he would be circulating a draft network neutrality-oriented Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on the matter.