Texas joins legal fight to block internet oversight transfer
Texas has joined three other states in taking legal action to stop the federal government from relinquishing oversight of an international group that maintains naming standards for the internet.
A lawsuit filed by attorneys general Ken Paxton of Texas, Mark Brnovich of Arizona, Scott Pruitt of Oklahoma and Adam Paul Laxalt of Nevada seeks to stop the Obama administration from letting the Commerce Department’s oversight of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers end on Friday.
In a statement Thursday, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said “the Obama administration’s decision (not to continue oversight) violates the Property Clause of the U.S. Constitution by giving away government property without congressional authorization, the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution by chilling speech, and the Administrative Procedure Act by acting beyond statutory authority.”
ICANN is a nonprofit group responsible for coordinating the maintenance and procedures of several databases related to the namespaces of the internet. ICANN would take over control of the Domain Naming System, which allows users to search by web addresses such as Statesman.com instead of typing in a series of numbers for the IP address.
The lawsuit also claims that the international organization “lists several authoritarian regimes as advisers to its board.”
“As a result,” Paxton’s statement said, “authoritarian regimes like Russia, China, and Iran will now have the ability to interfere with what should be a free and open internet.”
“Trusting authoritarian regimes to ensure the continued freedom of the internet is lunacy,” Paxton said. “The president does not have the authority to simply give away America’s pioneering role in ensuring that the internet remains a place where free expression can flourish.”
The lawsuit followed passage by Congress Wednesday night of a stopgap spending bill to keep the government running through Dec. 9 that did not include language by Sen. Ted Cruz to stop the handover of the internet domain name system, an effort by Cruz that had won the support of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump.
“Glaringly absent from this legislation is any action by Congress to stop President Obama’s internet giveaway,” Cruz said in a statement after passage of the continuing resolution.
“We should be united in protecting free speech online,” Cruz said. “As a result of congressional inaction, on Oct. 1 President Obama intends to give increased control of the internet to authoritarian regimes like China, Russia, and Iran. Like Jimmy Carter gave away the Panama Canal, Obama is giving away the Internet.”
“The American people are understandably fed up with Washington because they expect all of us – Republicans, Democrats, and independents alike – to put the people’s interests first,” Cruz said. “That includes protecting free speech online. Congress had the opportunity to do so today, but sadly failed to rise to the occasion.”
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This story was originally published September 29, 2016 at 2:47 PM with the headline "Texas joins legal fight to block internet oversight transfer."