Indian Law

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Comment
Volume 92.5
Leveraging the Federal Trust Responsibility to Safeguard Net Neutrality on Tribal Lands
Morgan O. Schaack
B.A. 2023, University of California, Los Angeles; J.D. Candidate 2026, The University of Chicago Law School.

I would like to thank Professor Sarah Konsky and the editors and staff of The University of Chicago Law Review for their invaluable input.

The internet plays a crucial role in modern life; however, equal access to it is not guaranteed. Drawing on existing tribal spectrum sovereignty arguments, Morgan Schaack writes that the control exercised by the FCC’s licensing of the electromagnetic spectrum and language common in many tribal treaties create a tribal access right to spectrum under the trust responsibility. Framing this access to spectrum as a trust-protected resource, the Comment situates allowing tiered internet service in the absence of net neutrality as a violation of the government's obligations under the trust responsibility.