ISPs sue Maine, claim Web-privacy law violates their free-speech rights

The broadband industry is suing Maine to stop a Web-browsing privacy law similar to the one killed by Congress and President Donald Trump in 2017. Industry groups claim the state law violates First Amendment protections on free speech and the Supremacy Clause of the US Constitution. The Maine law was signed by Gov Janet Mills (D-ME) in June 2019 and is scheduled to take effect on July 1, 2020. It requires Internet service providers (ISPs) to get customers' opt-in consent before using or sharing sensitive data. Home Internet providers and wireless carriers don't want to seek customer permission before using Web-browsing histories and similar data for advertising or other purposes. On Feb 14, the four major lobby groups representing the cable, telecommunication, and wireless industries sued the state in US District Court for the District of Maine, seeking an injunction that would prevent enforcement of the law. The state law "imposes unprecedented and unduly burdensome restrictions on ISPs', and only ISPs', protected speech," while imposing no requirements on other companies that deliver services over the Internet, the groups wrote in their lawsuit. When it defends its privacy law against the industry lawsuit, Maine would likely argue that it has authority to regulate broadband-industry practices that the federal government has chosen not to regulate.