Attorney General Tom Miller today joined a 21-state federal lawsuit challenging the Federal Communications Commission’s decision last month to repeal net neutrality regulations.

The 21 states, plus the District of Columbia, asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit to block the move, which would allow preferential treatment of websites rather than treating all equally.

“By repealing these rules, the FCC changed the so-called ‘Internet of Things’ to the internet of kings,” Miller said in a statement. “The FCC shouldn’t let providers be internet kingmakers through pay-for-play digital on-ramps. Consumers and small businesses alike should expect no less than equal access to internet content,” Miller added. “Unfettered data access shouldn’t be a luxury — it’s a necessity that’s vital to our nation’s economy and our state’s economy.”

The rules, passed in 2015, barred internet service providers from slowing or blocking the digital flow of content and applications, and from letting others pay for faster data service. Read the legal petition. 

In related news, 50 senators have endorsed a legislative measure to override the FCC’s recent decision to deregulate the broadband industry, top Democrats said in a Washington Post article. The tally leaves supporters just one Republican vote shy of the 51 required to pass a Senate resolution of disapproval, in a legislative gambit aimed at restoring the agency’s net neutrality rules.