'The Law is Whatever the Nobles Do': Undue Process at the FCC

Kafka's parable "The Problem of Our Laws" holds certain applicability to the August 2008 decision of the Federal Communications Commission to extend regulatory authority over the broadband network management practices of Comcast Corporation and "adjudicate" its behavior against a set of policy principles. The FCC's means of asserting regulatory authority over broadband Internet service providers' network management practices is unprecedented, sweeping in its breadth, and seemingly unbounded by conventional rules of interpretation and procedure. We should all be concerned, for apparently what we have on our hands is a runaway agency, unconstrained in its vision of its powers.