FCC should learn its limits.(Federal Communications Commission regulates broadband Internet access service)

A HALLMARK OF THE Explosive growth of the Internet over the past two decades has been the lack of federal regulation. Last fall, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) announced its intent to begin regulating broadband Internet access service--in essence, to become the nation's Internet traffic cop.

Since then the FCC has been searching unsuccessfully for a source of statutory authority to pass its so-called "net neutrality" rules. The stakes are enormous for the FCC, as well as for Internet service providers.

In April the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in the Comcast case shot down the FCC's attempt to assert socalled "ancillary jurisdiction" over broadband Internet access under …