Professor Barbara van Schewick is quoted by Amy Schatz of The Recode on why a hybrid approach to the net neutraility debate “would lose in court.” 

FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler is considering a novel legal strategy for solving the net neutrality mess the agency is currently in, one that would combine elements of the FCC’s two main legal options for enforcing rules on Internet providers.

Wheeler’s aides have been hinting for a month that the agency is seriously considering a so-called “hybrid” strategy, which would essentially regulate sections of Internet lines differently.

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Net neutrality advocates argue that the third option, the hybrid approach, isn’t the best way to move forward since the plan is so convoluted it probably won’t hold up under the inevitable legal challenge. They want the agency to reverse a 2002 decision to deregulate Internet lines, which would give the agency clearer authority to police Internet providers.

Stanford Law School professor Barbara van Schewick told Wheeler’s aides earlier this month that if the FCC tries a hybrid approach, “the FCC would lose in court a third time,” according to a filing with the agency Thursday in which she laid out in detail why such an approach would belly flop.