Noah Feldman, Columnist

Independent Agencies Really Aren't

Net neutrality is a political issue, so the Federal Communications Commission can't be above politics.

March 8, 2016 at 4:12 PM UTC

Noah Feldman is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. A professor of law at Harvard University, he is author, most recently, of “To Be a Jew Today: A New Guide to God, Israel, and the Jewish People."

Independent.
Photographer: Pete Marovich/Bloomberg

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A Senate committee report has charged that U.S. President Barack Obama “bowled over” the independent Federal Communications Commission when he urged it to regulate net neutrality last year. An influential commentator went so far as to say that the White House “broke the law.”

But a clear understanding of executive power and the relevant law indicates that these claims are misguided. It’s perfectly appropriate for the president to try to influence an executive agency, even one that’s independent in the sense that its leadership can only be removed for good cause. Nothing in the Senate report even vaguely suggests that Obama or his aides broke any law.