Daniel Beringer over at GigaOM argues that the Bells have tremendous amounts of state-owned right-of-way across the country and, in many cases, the state laws giving telcos this right-of-way require them to act as common carriers, which means that the carriers cannot discriminate against content. So existing local laws may have already established Net neutrality. Berninger also notes that cable companies don't get the telcos' free right-of-way and have to pay local franchise fees. I'm no lawyer, and Berninger may be way off the mark here, but it seems like an argument worth considering.
For more on local laws and Net neutrality:
- see this article from GigaOM