The rules over what companies selling internet access to folks are allowed to do are heading to America's law courts yet again.

Yep, it's net neutrality round three – and with all the legal briefs now filed, The Register has dug through the competing arguments to try to discern which way it will go.

The Washington DC Court of Appeals will hear arguments for and against the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Open Internet Order on February 1 and it could well see the current 2018 rules thrown out, with America's internet returning to the previous 2015 rules.

The main argument against the current rules is two-fold: first that scrapping the previous rules didn't come with a decent explanation or well-founded reasons – it was purely ideological; and second that the new rules effectively remove the FCC entirely from overseeing a critical service for millions of US citizens and as a result the regulator has abdicated its role, and therefore the decision is illegal.

The first point should get an audience. The 2015 rules – introduced during the Obama Administration and under FCC chair Tom Wheeler – were put in place following a lengthy policy process. And they were created out of necessity after the court threw out another set of rules covering internet access – the 2011 rules.

There were lots of people that did not like those 2015 rules (ourselves included) but they were instituted properly and through the long established processes that are designed to dig into the issues, develop various proposals, incorporate feedback, and provided reasonable explanations for decisions made.