Net neutrality activists, state officials are taking the FCC to court. Here's how they'll argue the case.

Opponents of the Federal Communications Commission have outlined their chief arguments on net neutrality to a federal appeals court in Washington, in hopes of undoing the FCC's move last year to repeal its own rules for Internet service providers. The legal briefs reflect a widening front in the multipronged campaign by consumer groups and tech companies to rescue the ISP regulations, which originally barred providers from blocking websites or slowing them. With the FCC's changes, Internet providers may legally manipulate Internet traffic as it travels over their infrastructure, as long as they disclose their practices to consumers. The FCC's decision last year to repeal the rules was "arbitrary and capricious," said officials from the state of New York, the California Public Utilities Commission and others in court documents Monday -- asking the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to overrule the agency. The FCC was too credulous in accepting industry promises "to refrain from harmful practices," the officials said, "notwithstanding substantial record evidence showing that [Internet] providers have abused and will abuse their gatekeeper roles in ways that harm consumers and threaten public safety."